The latest data on positive COVID-19 tests across the U.S. shared by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) shows that Americans living in four states are still suffering the highest rate of infections in the country.
After the Biden administration officially declared the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency on May 11, 2023, the number of infections linked to the virus suddenly surged at the end of summer. CDC officials urged all Americans to get their vaccine shots to prevent the virus spreading across the population and avoid severe symptoms as winter approached.
In fall and winter, seasonal diseases like the common cold and the flu normally spread among the population, with the potential of weakening people's immune system and making them more vulnerable to COVID-19.
But the spread of new COVID-19 infections has gradually slowed down since the end of summer and the fall in most of the country. In a majority of states the rate of COVID-19 infection was between 5.0 and 9.9 percent as of the week ending on December 16.
This is the latest data made available by the CDC, which was released on December 26. Every week, the federal agency produces a graphic of the entire country showing the rates of people testing positive for COVID-19 after taking a test. The percentage of positive cases are subsequently calculated and shown on a map, making it possible to compare different geographical areas. Results are no longer provided for individual states, but are instead recorded as an average across various administrative regions.
A COVID variant called JN.1 has been spreading quickly in the U.S. and now accounts for 44 percent of COVID cases, according to the CDC.
In the so-called Region One, including Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode Island and Vermont, the rate of new infections was 10.2 percent. In Region Nine and Region Two, which includes Arizona, California, Hawaii and Nevada and New Jersey and New York, the rate was 10.6 percent. In Region Five, which includes Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Wisconsin, the rate was 14.8 percent.
In only four states in the entire country the rate was above 15 percent. Region Seven, which includes Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, had the highest rate in the country as of the week ending on December 16, 18.5 percent. For weeks the four states have been identified as the worst-hit by the virus in the country, with more people testing positive than anywhere else.
The national average, in the same week, was 11.7 percent—up 0.2 percent from the previous week.
These four states were not the worst-affected when it came to COVID-related hospitalizations. There were a total of 25,577 hospital admissions across the U.S. in the past week, with California reporting the highest number (2,924), followed by New York (1,927), Texas (1,606), Ohio (1,335), Illinois (1,261), Florida (1,138) and Pennsylvania (1,111).
The rate of hospital admissions around the country had increased by 10.4 percent in the week ending on December 16, according to the CDC.
About the writer
Giulia Carbonaro is a Newsweek Reporter based in London, U.K. Her focus is on U.S. and European politics, global affairs ... Read more
