Health officials and experts are renewing calls for masking as respiratory illnesses surge and Americans prepare for holidays.
ACTION> The CDC recommends that all people over the age of 2 wear a high-quality mask in public, indoor settings when community levels are high, and vulnerable people should also mask when levels are medium. Additionally, the CDC still recommends that people mask while using public transportation, including airplanes, buses, trains, and subway systems.
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Officials, experts call for masking as illnesses slam US ahead of holidays
Nearly 10% of US counties have "high" transmission levels and should be masking.
FINDING: COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations, meanwhile, are on the rise, signaling the potential start of a much-dreaded winter wave. According to data tracking by The New York Times, cases are up 56 percent over the last two weeks and hospitalizations, which typically lag behind case rises, are up 28 percent. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is reporting that about 9 percent of US counties have high COVID-19 Community Levels, which are based on case numbers and hospital capacity. An additional 35 percent of US counties reportedly have medium community levels.
✓ Last week, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky noted that Americans also don't need to wait for health officials to recommend or even require masking to protect themselves."One need not wait for CDC action in order to put a mask on," she said. She also said that the agency is "actively looking into" including transmission rates of all respiratory illnesses—not just COVID-19—into its community levels categories, which determine when people should mask. If the agency made such a change soon, it could mean that masking recommendations could abruptly go into effect for the vast majority of the US.
Beth Mole / Beth is Ars Technica’s health reporter. She’s interested in biomedical research, infectious disease, health policy and law, and has a Ph.D. in microbiology.
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The Times recently began using C.D.C. data based on death certificates for locations that do not report deaths regularly or comprehensively. The federal data updates approximately once a month, which may appear as a spike in deaths.
New reported cases
Hot spots
Average daily cases per 100,000 people in past week
About this data
State trends
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Officials, experts call for masking as illnesses slam US ahead of holidays
This table is sorted by places with the most cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days. Charts show change in daily averages and are each on their own scale. Select a table header to sort by another metric.
Latest trends
- An average of 2,283 cases per day were reported in Arizona in the last week. Cases have increased by 19 percent from the average two weeks ago. Deaths have increased by 3 percent.
- Since the beginning of the pandemic, a total of 2,353,530 cases have been reported. At least 1 in 229 residents have died from the coronavirus, a total of 31,824 deaths.
- January 2022 was the month with the highest average cases, while January 2021 was the month with the highest average deaths in
Tracking Coronavirus in Arizona: Latest Map and Case Count
How to read Covid data now
Higher test positivity rates are a sign that many infections are not reported — even if they are tested for at home. This results in a more severe undercount of cases. The number of hospitalized patients with Covid is a more reliable measure because testing is more consistent in hospitals.
Reported cases, deaths and other trends by county
This table is sorted by places with the most cases per 100,000 residents in the last seven days. Statewide data often updates more frequently than county-level data, and may not equal the sum of county-level figures. Charts show change in daily averages and are each on their own scale. The state releases new data once a week. Prior to Feb. 27, 2022, it released new data data daily.
Cases by region
This chart shows how average daily cases per 100,000 people have changed in different parts of the country. The state with the highest recent average cases per 100,000 people is shown.
- West
- Midwest
- South
- Northeast
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