The U.S. reported modest increases in COVID-19 cases and admissions this week as the highly transmissible omicron subvariant BA.5 accounts for nearly 78 percent of infections nationwide, according to the CDC's COVID-19 data tracker weekly review published July 22.
Ten findings:
Cases
1. As of July 20, the nation's seven-day case average was 125,827, a 0.5 percent increase from the previous week's average.
Community impact
2. As of July 21, 41.9 percent of counties, districts or territories had high community levels of COVID-19, a 6.5 percentage point increase from the week prior.
3. Another 37.6 percent had medium community levels, marking a 2 percentage point decrease from the week prior.
Hospitalizations
4. The seven-day hospitalization average for July 13-19 was 6,180, a 4.7 percent increase from the previous week's average.
Deaths
5. The current seven-day death average is 348, down 9.5 percent from the previous week's average. Some historical deaths have been excluded from these counts, the CDC said.
Vaccinations
6. As of July 20, about 261.2 million people — 78.7 percent of the U.S. population — have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 223 million people, or 67.2 percent of the population, have received both doses.
7. About 107.5 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
8. Based on projections for the week ending July 16, the CDC estimates the omicron subvariant BA.5 accounts for 77.9 percent of U.S. COVID-19 cases, while BA.4 accounts for 12.8 percent. Other omicron subvariants make up the rest.
Testing
9. The seven-day average for percent positivity from tests is 17.3 percent.
10. The nation's seven-day average test volume for July 8-14 was 553,132, up 4 percent from the prior week.