By Giulia CarbonaroShareNewsweek is a Trust Project memberWhile the threat posed by COVID-19 remains relatively low nationwide, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) estimates that infections are growing or likely growing in 19 states across the nation.
As of November 18, with a little over a week to go before celebrating Thanksgiving on November 27, COVID-19 cases were increasing or are likely to in Colorado, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Louisiana, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, South Dakota, Texas, Vermont, and West Virginia.
In four other states, they were declining or likely to decline in California, Hawaii, Maine, and Washington. In 22 states, the number of infections was not changing.
These numbers were based on data from incident emergency department (ED) visits across the country. It is important to note that, even in the states where COVID-19 infections were growing, the weekly percentage of ED visits diagnosed with the disease was “very low,” according to the CDC. In Indiana, Mississippi, and West Virginia it was “low.”
Why It Matters
COVID-19 is no longer the threat to public health it used to be when the epidemic broke out in late 2019-early 2020. According to the CDC, 49.7 percent of the American population had been fully vaccinated as of August 2021, with 57.9 percent having received at least one dose. USA Facts reports that, as of this year, 70 percent of the American population are considered fully vaccinated.
The disease left a mark on the country—not only because of widespread lockdowns. While most people with COVID-19 had mild symptoms, many became severely ill, others developed so-called long COVID. As of June 1, 2024, nearly 1.2 million people had died of COVID-19 in the U.S., according to the CDC.
While the threat is not as urgent as it used to be, there are still people getting infected with COVID-19 across the country, with infections rising during the summer. An occasion like Thanksgiving, when big groups of people spend a long time in confined spaces, represents a chance for the virus to spread.
What To Know
As of September 27, the country’s test positivity—the percentage of total reported tests that are positive, was 6.7 percent, based on CDC data. The higher rate this year was reported in late August, when it peaked to 11.7 percent. In the same week, only 0.7 percent of ER visits were diagnosed as COVID-19, and 1.2 per 100,000 people were hospitalized with the disease.
...COVID-19 was behind 0.8 percent of all deaths in the nation during the week ending September 20, according to the CDC—one of the lowest rates reported in the past three years. At its peak in 2021, weekly deaths per 100,000 people reached 6.5.
Generally, the viral activity of COVID-19 in the country is at “very low” to “low” level, according to the CDC’s monitoring of wastewater levels. These typically detect viruses spreading from one person to another through the community, including infections without symptoms. This year, the CDC recommended a 2025-2026 COVID-19 vaccine for people aged 6 months and older “based on individual-based decision-making”—which means that boosters are not mandatory. But the centers stressed that vaccination is “especially important” for those most vulnerable to falling severely ill with the disease, including those aged 65 and older.
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