COVID hospitalizations have continued to trend upwards in recent weeks and overall hospital bed occupancy is at about 80% – a figure not seen since the omicron surge last winter.
A COVID-19 testing site stands on a sidewalk in New York, Dec. 9, 2022.COVID-19 is back on the rise as average cases and deaths this week are 1.5x higher compared to the previous week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"In the past week, we've started to see the unfortunate and expected rise of COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations nationally after the Thanksgiving holiday," said Dr. Rochelle P. Walensky, director of the CDC, during a telebriefing Monday. In a press conference Friday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and Dr. Ashish Jha, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, urged Americans to get vaccinated and boosted with a bivalent shot.
The bivalent booster is specifically formulated to protect against the BA.4/BA.5 variants and has been shown to protect well against newer circulating offshoots such as BQ.1 and BQ.1.1 which make up nearly 70% of new cases.
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