CDC Director Mandy Cohen, MD, said the season of respiratory syncytial virus is in "full swing" as flu slowly begins and COVID-19 leads the most hospitalizations and deaths, CNN reported Nov. 30.
What to know about COVID-19, RSV and flu:
COVID-19: Dr. Cohen said while COVID-19 is "relatively low," it remains the primary reason for new respiratory admissions and deaths. In November, each week saw between 14,000 and 18,000 hospitalizations and about 1,000 deaths.
The CDC revealed a new wastewater data tracking dashboard to track local and national trends per variant, and the dashboard also tracks mpox viruses.
Between Nov. 1 and Nov. 20, the most recent CDC information available, the proportion of wastewater sites reporting high increases of SARS-CoV-2 samples grew from 22% to 32%. During the same time, the proportion of wastewater sites finding decreasing samples slimmed from 60% to 49%.
RSV: Hospitalizations for RSV have been slightly rising, with RSV accounting for 0.5% of all hospitalizations in late October and 0.8% as of Nov. 18, according to the CDC. Ten states and New York City are reporting high levels of respiratory virus activity. Louisiana and South Carolina reported "very high" respiratory virus activity levels and Alabama, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Mississippi, New Mexico and Texas are seeing "high" levels.
Flu: The flu season is beginning as national estimates reveal 3.9% of healthcare visits were for flu for the week ending Nov. 25, a 0.2 percentage point increase from the prior week. Most of the U.S. is reporting an increase in flu, with hot spots appearing in the South Central, Southeast, Mountain and West Coast regions. Twenty-five states and territories are reporting minimal flu activity.
Hospitalizations for flu have grown for the third consecutive week.