The COVID-19 case and death numbers will now be updated once a week rather than daily, according to the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which will begin doing so on October 20.
The CDC is switching to a weekly reporting cadence for line level and aggregate case and death data, it announced on Thursday, “to provide for increased reporting flexibility, minimise the reporting load on states and territories, and maximise surveillance resources.”
Using data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the CDC continues to provide daily statistics on COVID hospitalizations. The National Healthcare Safety Network will take over the collecting of COVID hospital data in the middle of December, however it is unknown if this will change.
For more than two years, the CDC has been releasing COVID data on a daily basis. The CDC already updates its COVID community level ratings once a week on Thursdays. Ratings at the community level are used by state and municipal governments to determine when and where residents should be instructed to wear masks.
As the primary pandemic figures decline, the change is just another indication that the COVID reaction is de-escalating. According to the New York Times, on October 7 there were an average of 40,186 new COVID cases per day in the United States (a 26% decrease over the previous two weeks), 26,994 COVID-related hospitalizations (an 11% decrease), and 380 COVID-related deaths (an 11% decrease). According to medical professionals, the number of cases is actually larger because many findings of home tests are not submitted to regulatory bodies.
The CDC said earlier this week that it would stop keeping a list of travel warnings for foreign nations because “fewer countries are testing or reporting COVID-19 infections,” according to The New York Times. Instead, the CDC will only provide health advisories when “a problematic Covid-19 variation” is found in a certain country.
The number of COVID cases this winter may increase, particularly if a new COVID variation appears, according to Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical advisor, on Tuesday.
In a discussion organised by the USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism, Fauci remarked, “Even though we can feel pleased that we’re moving in the right way, we mustn’t let our guard down.” “We are approaching the winter months, where there is always a possibility of a spike in respiratory disease, regardless of what it is.”
