The situation is a little more tense in the United States where new cases have doubled in at least 7 states and in the capital Washington DC, over the past two weeks. In some cases like in Mississippi, the increase is out of control with a 157% rise in cases.
With 101,029 new daily cases on average over seven days, the Covid-19 epidemic is returning to levels not seen since last February on the other side of the Atlantic. New infections are soaring again by some 42% from the start of May, when health authorities were reporting an average of 71,099 new cases per day.
Here’s the variant picture for the US for that period, showing BA.2.12.1 rising rapidly against other BA.2.* lineages.
BA.4 and BA.5 are lurking below, at relatively lower frequencies so far. pic.twitter.com/ZSnWDFArwO
— Mike Honey ud83dudc89ud83dudc89ud83dudc89 (@Mike_Honey_) May 23, 2022
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The CDC ( Center for desease and control prevention), the US federal health agency, notably warned of high levels of transmission in several counties in New York, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Connecticut, Rhode Island, New Hampshire, Vermont and Maine. The whole country is therefore now in the grip of a resurgence of the virus.
Especially since hospitalizations are also on the rise, the seven-day average reaching 3,250 people treated daily on average due to Covid during the week of May 9 to 17, up 24% compared to the previous week, again according to the CDC.
According to the sequences, it appears that 50.9% of new cases are linked to the BA.2 subvariant during the past week, according to the CDC. The other Omicron sub-variant, BA.2.12.1, continues to spread and now accounts for 47.5% of new infections recorded last week.
“As we are currently seeing a steady increase in cases in some parts of the country, we encourage everyone to use the prevention tools we have today to prevent new infections and serious illnesses, including wearing a mask. , tests, access to treatments as soon as possible even if the positive people have been infected and vaccinated”CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said at a press conference on Wednesday.
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