COVID-19 cases dipped nationwide in the past week, though the number of areas with high levels of community spread is rising as the highly transmissible omicron subvariant BA.5 remains dominant in the U.S., according to the CDC's COVID-19 data tracker weekly review published July 8.
Ten findings:
Cases
1. As of July 6, the nation's seven-day case average was 106,549, a 3.9 percent decrease from the previous week's average.
Community spread
2. As of July 7, 20.7 percent of counties, districts or territories had high levels of COVID-19 spread in their communities, a 1.3 percentage point increase from the week prior. Another 37.8 percent had medium spread levels, marking a 2.4 percentage point increase from the week prior.
Hospitalizations
3. The seven-day hospitalization average for June 29 to July 5 was 5,080, a 3.1 percent increase from the previous week's average.
Deaths
4. The current seven-day death average is 273, down 20.9 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 260.3 million people — 78.4 percent of the U.S. population — have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 222.5 million people, or 67 percent of the population, have received both doses.
6. About 106.6 million additional or booster doses in fully vaccinated people have been reported. However, 50.1 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 2, the CDC estimates the omicron subvariant BA.5 accounts for 53.6 percent of U.S. COVID-19 cases, while BA.2.12.1 accounts for 27.2 percent.
8. BA.4 accounts for nearly 16.5 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 June 24-30 was 414,614, down 22.4 percent from the prior week.