Surge in Covid-related hospital admissions in US amid late summer wave risk

New York, July 29

Several Covid-related indicators, including hospital admissions and positivity rate are once again on the rise in the US, threatening a late summer wave in the country.

The latest indicators, including hospital admissions, emergency department visits, test positivity, and wastewater levels, are increasing nationally, according to the latest data from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

From July 9 to 15, there was an over 10 per cent increase in hospital admissions due to Covid 19 in the US.

However, there was no Covid-19 death rate change yet.

According to experts, the fresh cases may not be severe and this uptick may not be prolonged.

As testing data has become more limited, wastewater surveillance can offer a more consistent view of transmission trends over time, according to CNN.

Data from Biobot Analytics, a biotechnology firm that has partnered with the CDC, shows that the concentration of coronavirus particles in sewage samples is about a third of what it was at this time last year.

CDC data also suggests that other pathogens that can cause flu-like symptoms or stomach bugs, including adenovirus, norovirus and rotavirus, are circulating at much higher levels this summer than they were last year.

This is the fourth summer that Covid-19 cases have risen in the US.

According to the report, the CDC is also tracking a slew of co-circulating Covid-19 variants, and all of them seem to be second- or third-generation offshoots of the recombinant variant XBB.