Hi — I hope you and yours are staying well as we round out 2023. I wasn’t going to post this week but checking the data is such a longstanding habit that I couldn’t resist a quick update. Briefly:

Influenza-like illness is increasing quickly, with 5.1% of visits to the doctor for fever and cough or sore throat, up from 4.4% the week prior.

The entire Southern region and most of the Western region are seeing very high levels of activity.

New England is also heating up, with New York City in the very high category and other jurisdictions at moderate or high. The Midwest still looks pretty good, but activity is definitely increasing there as well.

Outpatient influenza-like illness activity. Source: CDC

Covid-19 activity is also rising. The number of new weekly hospitalizations has climbed to over 25,000, up from a recent low of around 15,000 (note: this data is as of December 16, so it’s a little out of date). However, we are still far below last winter’s peak.

The Midwestern and Northeastern regions have the highest rates of hospitalization, and those regions also have the highest wastewater concentration. People over the age of 70 are still at highest risk of hospitalization.

Source: CDC

RSV activity is still high across the country.

That’s all for today, just wanted to make sure you have the latest. See you next year!