The overall pace of COVID-19 activity in the United States has showed some signs of leveling off, with the disease burden indicating a shift from east to west.Meanwhile, advisers to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) will meet tomorrow to discuss emergency use of the Novavax COVID-19 vaccine.Uncertain summer aheadThe 7-day average for new daily COVID-19 cases is 105,576, with 269 daily deaths, according to the Washington Post tracker.
Over the past week, cases dropped 1% after rising slowly since about the middle of April. Hospitalizations over the past week rose 8%, while deaths dropped 27%.The nation faces an uncertain summer, with the more transmissible BA.2.12.1 Omicron subvariant—first seen in New York—becoming the dominant strain over the past 2 weeks.
Officials are closely watching two other more transmissible subvariants, BA.4 and BA.5, that recently triggered a modest wave in South Africa and have been linked to a fresh rise in cases in Portugal.In the United States, the increase in COVID-19 cases appears to be slowing in the Northeast, according to the New York Times.
Levels appear to be rising westward, however, according to a Wall Street Journal analysis of CDC data. It said the West recently passed the Northeast as the area with the highest rate of known cases per 100,000 people.Meanwhile, the nation's overall COVID vaccine uptake has been roughly level since the middle of April, with 66.7% of Americans fully vaccinated.