A headline in the Boston Globe (firewall) for July 16: COVID surges to ‘very high’ or ‘high’ levels in dozens of states, including multiple in New England, CDC says.
The Globe posts illnesses and deaths in its service area each week. While it’s nowhere near what it was at the height of the pandemic, it’s not zero. Check out the death statistics.
Also, “wastewater surveillance data compiled by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show the prevalence of COVID has hit ‘very high’ levels in seven states, including California, Texas, and Florida.”
So it is not a shock that Joe Biden contracted the disease again. I’m told that at least 15 people attending the 1973/1974/1975 Binghamton Central High School reunion got it.
From the Los Angeles Times this month
July 1 -COVID-19 cases are continuing to climb in Los Angeles County, as are the number of people hospitalized with infections, as the typical summer surge in the illness creeps up.
Doctors have noted an earlier-than-normal rise for this time of year, which in L.A. County began in May. Among those recently testing positive for the coronavirus was Mayor Karen Bass… The mayor tested positive for the first time last June…
The new FLiRT subvariants, officially known as KP.3, KP.2 and KP.1.1, are believed to be roughly 20% more transmissible than their parent, JN.1, the winter’s dominant subvariant, Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious-disease expert at UC San Francisco, has said.
For the two-week period that ended June 22, the most recent information available, 62.9% of estimated COVID specimens in the U.S. were of the FLiRT variants — up from 45.3% a month earlier.
The rise is due to the FLiRT variant.
July 8: COVID cases and hospitalizations rise in L.A. County — and some of those recently reinfected with the FLiRT variants are finding the latest bout the worst yet.
The following week
July 15: For the first time since the winter, California has “very high” coronavirus levels in its wastewater, according to data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The state levels are now estimated to be significantly higher than last summer.
The increase comes as national virus measurements in sewage also have jumped significantly, an indication that the summer bump is continuing to grow.
July 16: COVID is continuing to rise this summer, and its spread is being aided by people who are still going to work or traveling while sick.
“Certainly, people are trying to get back to whatever life was like before the pandemic,” said Dr. Elizabeth Hudson, regional chief of infectious disease at Kaiser Permanente Southern California. “We’re in a different place than we were before. … However, good common sense shouldn’t go out the window.”
FLiRT
Johns Hopkins describes FLiRT: