The Rise Of COVID Cases In The United States
Towards the beginning of January 2024, the number of COVID-19 cases began to rise at a consequential rate in the United States. Although the amount of cases has risen, fortunately, hospitalizations have stayed at a lower rate than in previous years. When United States citizens first experienced COVID-19 in 2020, hospitalizations were teetering at around 100,000 cases and deaths were at around 30,000 per week. In the first week of January 2024, hospitalizations were around 35,000, and death tolls had dropped to 1,600 weekly. Thus, it is evident that the rates have lowered an exceptional amount.
The diminishing of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations could partially be attributed to widespread vaccines and immunity. However, it has been reported that federal officials stopped tracking COVID-19 data last spring when they declared the longstanding public health emergency over. The only relative and consistent indicator that remains is the testing of wastewater. Monitoring wastewater can indicate the emergence of COVID-19 before the first detection in humans. It is well known that elderly and ill people are more prone to COVID-19 – so when the wastewater indicates a COVID-19 rise, they know to be more careful around periods when a spike in the water occurs. Still, this system is imperfect and does not ensure that people will not receive the virus or how much it is circulating. This system only provides information on the pace of acceleration and is not precise when computing how many cases will appear.
Indications of COVID-19 rising through wastewater can be a considerable attribute to being safe during those times. Yet, there are still concerns about why COVID-19 is rising so consistently at this present time. While vaccines and higher immunity maintain the lower case levels of COVID-19, they do not completely contain it. From October 2023 through January 2024, people have been getting together and traveling for holidays and other events. Thus, because more people are interacting with each other as well as traveling on public transportation, the illnesses spread faster.
An additional issue that the United States is facing at the moment that may be causing the rise of COVID-19 is a new variant, “JN.1”. This variant is hypothesized to be two times more infectious than previous COVID-19 variants with it being accountable for 61% of the cases in this latest spike. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), symptoms of the JN.1 variant include sore throat, cough, headache, fever, chills, loss of taste or smell, and muscle aches.
It is important to know when to take precautions to prevent the further spread of the new variant of COVID-19. It may be tempting to believe that COVID-19 and the entire virus are over and gone forever. Nonetheless, elderly and immunocompromised people are still at high risk for acquiring severe forms of the virus. Therefore, knowing the preventative measures can be significant in reducing the spread. Some measures include wearing a mask, avoiding crowds when possible, COVID testing, and staying home when feeling ill.
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