COVID-19 infections continue to increase across the US, as per the latest epidemic modeling from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
In August, nearly 50 states saw a significant raise and Washington, D.C. Iowa was the only state without enough data to determine a trend amid the summer wave.
Is Covid coming back?
The figures mark a significant change from July 22, when infections were projected to be increasing in 37 states, while 11 states showed a little update.
Those stable areas have now disappeared from the CDC’s map.
47 states report growing infections
The CDC’s Current Epidemic Trends model currently classifies 47 states as “Growing”, while New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Washington, D.C., are listed as “Likely Growing.” No state is categorized as declining or stable.
Major states including California, Texas, Florida, New York, Pennsylvania, Illinois and Georgia are all experiencing higher rates of transmission.
The model does not estimate the number of people currently infected. Instead, it tracks whether COVID-19 transmission is moving upward or downward, making it an early indicator of changes in disease activity.
Experts urge awareness
As per experts, the sudden Covid summer wave remains consistent with the seasonal pattern COVID-19 has developed in recent years.
Andrew Pekosz, a professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, stated late-summer and early-fall raises have become an expected pattern.
He further mentioned that infections are increasing steadily instead of seeing a dramatic surge and particularly didn’t raise concerns over specific Covid variants across the US.
Peter Chin-Hong of the University of California, San Francisco, told Newsweek, “This tells us that we are in a broad national wave of COVID infection. This is not surprising. A broad national wave of COVID does not mean that there will be a lot of severely ill people however as the population is generally immunologically experienced.”
Moreover, he urged people to remain aware of all the risks, especially the vulnerable population that include immuno suppressed people, elderly individuals, and pregnant ladies.
Experts also strongly advised staying up to date with eligible COVID-19 vaccinations and other seasonal respiratory-virus vaccines.
