The CDC warns of a 10% increase in Covid hospitalizations in the United States, with over 7,100 patients hospitalized in the week of July 15.

Dr. Brendan Jackson, the CDC’s Covid incident manager in Atlanta told NPR -

“After roughly six, seven months of steady declines, things are starting to tick back up again. We’ve seen the early indicators go up for the past several weeks. And just this week, for the first time in a long time, we’ve seen hospitalizations tick up as well.”

“This could be the start of a late summer wave,” he emphasized that the increases have been big in the Southeast.

More concerning are the “mutagenic” new types of the virus are appearing in Asia, but for most people in the US “these early signs don’t need to mean much,” he said.

CDC spokesperson Kathleen Conley said -

“Early indicators of Covid-19 activity (emergency department visits, test positivity and wastewater levels) preceded an increase in hospitalizations seen this past week.”

But, Covid rates are still at “near-historic lows” in the US, she said, and infection-related deaths are declining, according to the CDC. Dr. Marc Siegel confirmed a summer surge is happening.

Dr. Marc Siegel said -

“I am likely going to recommend the new XBB subvariant booster in the fall, especially for those in high-risk groups who haven’t had a recent infection or vaccine. Ordinarily, I would pay careful attention to wastewater analysis, but given the amount of immunity still around from prior infection and vaccination — coupled with the fact that we are still within the Omicron family with most infections remaining mild and hospitalizations showing only a slight uptick — I don’t see this as a harbinger of another surge.”

He further added -

“These are just embers of a fire not completely out. I am likely going to recommend the new XBB subvariant booster in the fall, especially for those in high-risk groups who haven’t had a recent infection or vaccine.”