Thirty-five states are experiencing high or very high respiratory virus activity, according to the CDC, despite a recent dip in flu hospital admissions and a slower increase in the rate of new COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Experts agree that the "dip" is likely aligned with holiday-associated behaviors such as postponing healthcare visits, and will likely tick back up.
Nationally, despite the dip, the CDC notes that emergency visits for respiratory virus illnesses remain elevated. While COVID-19 admissions slowed, there was still an increase of 3.2% according to the most recently reported data. The agency's ongoing wastewater surveillance of viral activity is still high, underscoring that despite the slight dips in reported cases, prevalence of these seasonal viruses are still high overall.
The CDC ranks virus activity on 13 levels, ranging from low to very high. The levels are a measure of the weekly percentage of visits to an outpatient provider or emergency department for fever and cough or sore throat, relative to what the state typically experiences during periods of low circulation.
Below is a list of the states currently experiencing the highest levels of respiratory virus activity, according to CDC data:
- New Mexico, South Carolina, Louisiana and Tennessee are currently seeing the highest levels of reported virus activity in the nation.
- Georgia, Alabama, California, Wyoming, Texas, North Carolina, New Jersey, Mississippi and Colorado are also experiencing very high virus activity.
- Idaho, Arizona, North Dakota, Nebraska, Arkansas, Ohio, Kentucky, Virginia, Florida, Maryland, Massachusetts are reporting high levels of virus activity.
- Washington, Nevada, Montana, Michigan, Wisconsin, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New York, Rhode Island, New Hampshire are also experiencing high levels of viral activity, but at a slightly lower level than those listed above.