Welcome to the Northeastern edition of Outbreak Outlook! It is only available to paid subscribers. If you wish to become a paid subscriber and access region-specific information, please click the Subscribe now button below. Thanks for reading! -Caitlin Respiratory DiseasesILIInfluenza-like illness is minimal across most of the Northeast. The bottom line is that very little influenza is circulating, but if you want the details: Connecticut and New Jersey report outpatient activity at a “low” level, but wastewater concentration remains minimal in these states, so not much is happening. Similarly, Pennsylvania and Massachusetts have low wastewater concentration but show minimal outpatient illness. Rhode Island has moderate levels of wastewater concentration but minimal outpatient visits. Activity in New York City is minimal. P.S. New to the regional editions? This information will get more detailed when activity picks up later in the season. COVID-19Things are quiet with Covid-19. Covid-19 wastewater activity is minimal across the region. That increase I reported last week appears to have been a blip; rates are now lower than they were before that transient increase. Severe illness is low and declining, with minimal visits to the emergency department for Covid-19.
Source: CDC Only one state in the region is reporting high wastewater activity: New Hampshire (limited coverage), but it appears to be declining there. In addition, wastewater activity has declined from high to moderate in Maine and Vermont.
These states have similarly seen a drop-off in ED visits over the past month. In Maine, ED visits declined substantially this past week to 0.9%, down from 2.6% of all ED visits a month ago. And in Vermont, rates have fallen from 3% a month ago to 1% this past week.
Source: CDC Wastewater activity is low in Pennsylvania (limited coverage), and minimal in Rhode Island and New Jersey. The exceptions to these improving trends are Connecticut and Massachusetts where wastewater activity is moderate and increasing. However, in both of these states, ED visits declined (in the case of Massachusetts) or held steady (Connecticut) at minimal levels this past week, and hospitalizations decreased in Connecticut. (Massachusetts did not report Covid-19 hospitalizations). Last week I reported that it looked like there might be a notable increase in wastewater activity in New York, but that there were lags in reporting, so this increase was based on data from <5% of the state’s population. The data caught up and fortunately that increase was just sampling error: activity remains minimal for the state. Further supporting that rates are low, ED visits in the state were minimal (0.5% all ED visits were for Covid-19) and hospitalizations decreased (to 4.0 per 100,000). In New York City, the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations has declined steadily, now averaging less than 20 city-wide. Still, the City reports an average of one death per day. RSVAs noted last week, test positivity is increasing, but continues to be very low. One curious data point is that wastewater concentration in Connecticut is coming in as “very high,” but again test positivity in the state is very low so I am not too concerned right now. Other BugsCommon causes of cold- and flu-like symptoms are picking up steam. Parainfluenza has increased rapidly the past few weeks, and is now at a moderately high level. Adenovirus activity has also increased moderately. Human coronaviruses have started increasing as well, but remain at low levels. Stomach BugsNo updates this week; there were reporting delays. Food recallsThe following foods are being recalled because they are contaminated. Please check your cupboards and throw out any of these items: New:
Previously reported:
In other news
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THE WORLD READS WHITE PLAINS CITIZENETREPORTER — 8,324,077 VISITS IN ONE YEAR
2,905,611 VISITORS VISIT 8,324,077 TIMES 3 TIMES EVERY DAY IN ONE YEAR. HIGHEST ACTIVITY IN WPCNR HISTORY.White PlainsCitizeNetReporter lifted its worldwide visits from unique visitors to wpcnr.com to 8,324,077,a 1,306,419 increase in visits in one year from 7,017,658 visits to the site last year which covers White Plains and Westchester County. The 8,324,077 visits were made by 2,005,611 unique visitors who visited wpcnr an average of 3 visits a day. ON JULY 20- -2026 visitors have accessed wpcnr and made 3,072 visits an average of 1.6 visits. In the last week 33,495 individual vistors made 54,458 visits, averaging 1.6 visits. In the last month, 152,940 visitors recorded 229,338 visits (1.5 visits)
