COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths are all increasing nationwide as the highly transmissible omicron subvariant BA.5 continues to spread, according to the CDC's COVID-19 data tracker weekly review published July 15.
Ten findings:
Cases
1. As of July 13, the nation's seven-day case average was 124,048, a 15.7 percent increase from the previous week's average.
Community spread
2. As of July 14, 35.4 percent of counties, districts or territories had high levels of COVID-19 spread in their communities, a 14.8 percentage point increase from the week prior. Another 39.6 percent had medium spread levels, marking a 1.8 percentage point increase from the week prior.
Hospitalizations
3. The seven-day hospitalization average for July 6-12 was 5,851, a 14.4 percent increase from the previous week's average.
Deaths
4. The current seven-day death average is 352, up 12.6 percent from the previous week's average. Some historical deaths have been excluded from these counts, the CDC said.
Vaccinations
5. As of July 6, about 260.7 million people — 78.5 percent of the U.S. population — have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 222.7 million people, or 67.1 percent of the population, have received both doses.
6. About 107 million additional or booster doses in fully vaccinated people have been reported. However, 50.2 percent of people eligible for a booster dose have not yet gotten one, the CDC said.
Variants
7. Based on projections for the week ending July 9, the CDC estimates the omicron subvariant BA.5 accounts for 65 percent of U.S. COVID-19 cases, while BA.2.12.1 accounts for 17.3 percent.
8. BA.4 accounts for nearly 16.3 percent of U.S. cases, and other omicron subvariants make up the rest.
Testing
9. The seven-day average for percent positivity from tests is 17.5 percent.
10. The nation's seven-day average test volume for July 1-7 was 520,155, down 2.4 percent from the prior week.