People's CDC COVID-19 Weather Report

The Weather: A significant 72.02% of the population continues to live in areas with substantial or higher transmission. While this is a meaningful drop from last week, this is still as much as 3 in 4 people in the United States. Data processing delays this week also make case results from Florida, Utah, and Washington appear lower than they truly are.

Map and table show COVID transmission levels by US county as of Mar 8, 2023 based on the number of COVID cases per 100,000 population and percent positivity in the past 7 days. Low to Moderate levels are pale yellow, Substantial is orange, High is red, Very High is brown, and Extremely High is black. The US shows a mix of mainly red and orange, with areas of lighter yellow on the west coast as well as portions of the Northeast. Text in the bottom right: 72.02 percent of the US population lives in an area with substantial or higher transmission. Transmission Level table shows 0.70 percent of counties (0.09 percent by population) as Extremely High, 1.21 percent of the counties (0.12 percent by population) as Very High, 38.51 percent of counties (31.97 percent by population) as High, 26.23 percent of counties (39.84 percent by population) as Substantial, and 33.35 percent of counties (27.99 percent by population) as Low to Moderate. The People's CDC created the graphic from CDC data.

Wins: There is a bright spot in the darkness that is the removal of universal masking in California Healthcare. San Francisco will continue to require healthcare workers to be masked and vaccinated to protect patients from forced COVID exposure.

While this indeed is a win, we should continue to apply pressure so we can reverse California’s harmful decision and ensure that San Francisco does not rescind these guidelines in the future.

On Variants: This week, Kraken (XBB.1.5) makes up 89.5% of cases, which is about the same as the 89.6% of cases reported in last week’s Weather Report. The amount of Kraken did still increase from last week however, as the NowCast from last week has since been updated to be 87%, slightly lower than initially thought.

A stacked bar chart with weeks on the x-axis shows weeks from Dec 4, 2022 to Mar 11, 2023 and y-axis as percentage of viral lineages among infections. Title of bar chart reads “Weighted and Nowcast Estimates in United States for Weeks of 12/4/2022-3/11/2023” and title of table reads “Nowcast Estimates in United States for 3/5/2023-3/11/2023.” The recent 3 weeks are labeled as Nowcast projections. XBB.1.5 (dark purple) continues to increase, making up about 89.5 percent of current week infections. BQ.1.1 (teal) continues to decrease in recent weeks but remains the second most prevalent lineage currently around 4.7 percent. XBB, XBB.1.5.1, BQ.1 and CH1.1.1 are smaller percentages represented by a handful of other colors as small slivers. — Graphic source: CDC COVID Data Tracker: Variant Proportions

We have now reached a point where no matter what HHS region of the US you are in, at least 4 in 5 people in your region who catch COVID are catching Kraken. In the case of the Northeast, it’s almost 5 out of 5.

Regional difference map of the US with 10 regions each depicted as shades of gray. In general, the numbers start in the Northeast and increase as they move south and then westward. Title reads “Nowcast Estimates for 3/5/2023 to 3/11/2023 by HHS Region.” Each region has a colored pie chart showing variant proportions. Legend at bottom right reads “Regional proportions from specimens collected the week ending 3/11/2023.” XBB1.5 (dark purple) makes up about 96 percent of the pie in regions 1 and 2, and 95 percent in 3 (Northeast & Mid-Atlantic). The proportion of XBB1.5 is lower moving westward, with ranges from about 80 to 91 percent across the remainder of the country. Bottom text reads: “Updated March 10, 2023” and “Lineages called using pangolin v4.2, pangolin-data v1.18.1.1 and usher v0.6.2.” — Graphic source: CDC COVID Data Tracker: Variant Proportions

Wastewater Monitoring: Wastewater levels on average appear to continue to slowly decrease or plateau across the country, though levels of COVID viral load overall continue to remain high, indicating community spread.

Top title reads, “Wastewater: Effective SARS-Cov-2 virus concentration (copies/mL of sewage)” and bottom title reads, “Source: Wastewater data from Biobot Analytics, Inc.” Line graph shows the levels of COVID detected in wastewater by US region, each region with a different color trend line. The y-axis shows copies per mL of sewage and the x-axis shows time between January 29, 2023 to March 5, 2023. A legend map of the US in the center shows the West region as green, South as pink, Midwest as purple, and Northeast as orange. There is a box on the right of the map that indicates the absolute number of copies/mL per region. Northeast (orange) in Jan had the highest amount of copies/mL, decreasing from 941 copies on January 25 to 334 on March 8, now holding the lowest position. As of March 8, Midwest (purple) now has the highest amount of copies/mL, at 550 copies/mL, followed by 375 copies/mL in the South (pink) and 372 copies/mL in the West (green). — Graphic source: Biobot Analytics

However, if you zoom in to specific counties, you’ll find more variation in how wastewater levels are trending. For example, wastewater levels in San Jose have risen to high levels in recent weeks, and they’re currently increasing in parts of Los Angeles. This tells us that the national trend is not the end-all-be-all–please check your county’s wastewater levels too!

Hospitalizations: Hospitalizations for confirmed COVID cases remain high at national rates of almost 5 per 100,000 for ages 70+ and almost 1 per 100,000 for all ages.

Image of line graphs titled “New Admissions of Patients with Confirmed COVID-19” from August 1, 2020 to March 8, 2023. A line graph showing hospitalizations for all ages is on the left, and is broken down by age group on the right. The y-axis is labeled “New Admissions per 100,000 Population” and ranges from 0 to 7 for all ages and 0 to 20 by age group. The x-axis is time from August 1, 2020 to March 8, 2023. For all ages, a recent peak occurred in early January 2023. Current hospitalizations are at a rate of 0.86 per 100,000 people. 70+ (solid red-purple) is the highest for the whole graph with a larger gap within the last year, followed by 60-69 (dashed dark pink), and then progressively decreasing by decade, with the last 2 groups being 0-17 years (solid gold) and 18-29 years (dashed light cyan). In the last month, all ages are slightly decreasing. Age 70+ admissions are at about 4.2 per 100,000. The other age groups are under 2. — Graphic Source: https://covid.cdc.gov/covid-data-tracker/#new-hospital-admissions

Deaths: The week of March 8, 2023, 1,862 people died of COVID nationally. At least 1,119,762 people have died from COVID in the US. Deaths for the past week may be even larger due to incomplete data from processing delays for Utah, Washington, and Florida.

Long COVID: Long COVID issues are continuing to slowly but solidly enter mainstream discourse. A recent CNN article interviews people who have Long COVID, asking about and reporting on their expressed needs. This is critical advice that anyone trying to help friends or employees who have Long COVID should know.

Biological: Scientists continue working hard to discover new COVID treatments. For example, they have tentatively discovered a new way to potentially restrict COVID infection in the body: by blocking specific complexes called mSWI/SNF from enabling viral RNA to multiply. This discovery, currently in very early laboratory studies, may hold promise to fight even strains resistant to current drugs like Remdesivir.

Forecast: A major continuing problem is that our indoor air is now filled with COVID and flu viruses. This is why it is heartening to see that several countries are moving to improve indoor air quality standards. The movement for freedom to breathe clean air must succeed if we are to have a livable society free of long-term illness.

Take Action: Activists recently confronted Moderna CEO Stephane Bancel asking him to share lifesaving mRNA vaccine technology with the developing world. Rather than help people who lack access to vaccines and treatments, he continues to corruptly shackle them to sickness through prohibitive costs and artificial scarcity.

We will not be silenced: share the video and sign the petition to demand Moderna share the science for global vaccine access and freedom to good health!

Our medical facilities are one of the last safe havens left where universal masking remains, protecting us from Long COVID during routine appointments. This is why it is especially malicious that many states are removing universal masking in healthcare settings.

Join Seattle Still Cares in fighting to retain universal masking in healthcare and prisons in Washington, and join this petition and call campaign to do the same for New Jersey.

Join a West Coast coordinated action to #KeepMasksInHealthCare in CA, OR, WA. Register for a live zoom phone banking event on Tuesday, March 14 12 PT https://tinyurl.com/WCCPhonebank and together tell policymakers masks protect vulnerable people in healthcare and other high risk settings.

Thank you so much for reading. We’ll be taking a well-deserved spring break next week so after this week’s report you can catch us again on March 27th!

Notes: 1) The numbers in this report were current as of 3/11. The CDC updates data frequently as it receives refreshed information. Today’s numbers may be slightly different from the data here. 2) Check out the links throughout & see our website for more! https://bej.gbh.mybluehost.me.