The wave of new COVID-19 infections caused by the omicron variant has ebbed in much of the Northeast, while case rates increase in parts of the South and areas further to the west.
“As we have seen during other phases of this pandemic, the surge in cases started at different times in different regions and may continue to see high case counts in some areas of the country in the days and weeks ahead,” said Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Director Rochelle Walensky.
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Cases overall in the United States have exceeded 735,000 per day on average, a massive increase from the peak in the previous delta surge — the country saw 250,000 cases daily over a week this time last year. The rapidly increasing rate of new cases just turned a corner last week after the U.S. reported about 1 million cases in a single day, based on data collected by the New York Times.
Parts of the U.S. where the omicron surge was most acute have seen some reprieve in the past two weeks. In New York, for instance, the weekly average number of new cases of COVID-19 fell from their peak of over 74,000 on Jan. 9 to about 35,600 on Thursday. Hospitalizations, while high at about 12,700 patients being treated for COVID-19 Friday, also began descending this week.
In New Jersey, new cases have fallen 54% over the past two weeks from a high of nearly 32,000 to about 14,000 on Thursday. The decline in case rates, as well as falling hospitalizations, is good news for New Jersey, but deaths attributed to COVID-19 are on the rise. About 89 deaths were reported there every day this week, the highest total since January 2021 during the onslaught caused by the delta variant.
Most other Northeastern states are reporting decreasing case rates over the past two weeks — Delaware’s rate dropped by 18%, Connecticut’s dropped by 28%, Rhode Island’s dropped by 4%, Massachusetts’s dropped by 19%, and Pennsylvania’s dropped by 11%. Hospitalizations in those states have also sloped downward, albeit modestly. Meanwhile, some Northeastern states’ case rates have jumped in that time frame: Vermont cases are up 54%, New Hampshire cases are up 60%, and cases in Maine are up 20%, according to New York Times data.
“We are starting to see steep declines in areas that were first peaking,” Walensky told reporters Friday. “That also means that some areas are higher than they had been before, but overall nationally, the case numbers are coming down, which I consider an optimistic trend.”
States further to the west have not been so lucky. For example, cases over the past two weeks have skyrocketed in Oklahoma, up 208% in Montana, up 142%, in North Dakota, up 163%, and Wyoming, up 146%.
Some Southern states, where cases remain high, have seen steady increases in caseloads over the past 14 days. In Alabama, for instance, cases have jumped 55% in that time period. In South Carolina, cases are up 69%, while Tennessee has reported a jump of 72%. Florida, which seems to have seen the worst of its four massive waves, has actually seen cases drop 22%. Its neighbor, Georgia, has seen a similar decline of 6%.
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Epidemiologists have posited that the peak of the omicron variant is imminent, around mid- to late January. Public health experts and the general public are optimistic that the end is in sight, a mood bolstered by evidence that the omicron variant is less severe than the delta variant, which pummeled the U.S. this time last year. Daily increases in deaths attributed to COVID-19 hit new highs during the delta surge, but the omicron surge has caused far fewer fatalities.
Close to 2,000 deaths linked to COVID-19 were announced every day this week on average, compared to a seven-day average of more than 3,300 last winter. But deaths, which are lagging indicators that begin to reflect high case counts around three weeks later, are up. There has been a roughly 45% increase in deaths over the past two weeks, New York Times tracking shows.
