The number of new COVID-19 cases in the United States plateaued this past week amid concerns over what the winter months might bring.
According to figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the average number of new COVID-19 cases are now sitting at about 96,000 a day — close to what they were a week ago. There were 138,000 new cases reported on Wednesday.
The total number of new COVID-19 cases for the week that ended Nov. 29 was listed at 517,431, a decrease of nearly 22 percent from the previous week. Some of that decline may have been due to slow reporting over the Thanksgiving weekend.
Deaths attributed to COVID-19 for the same time period were listed as 5,719, a drop of 47 percent from the prior week.
Yet, hospitalizations are sitting at about 50,000, around 10,000 more than late last week. Michigan has the most, with more than 4,000 people hospitalized for COVID-19.
Meanwhile, the 7-day average of vaccine doses administered in the United States fell to about 1 million, although there appears to be data missing from part of the Thanksgiving weekend.
Overall, the United States has reported 49 million COVID-19 cases since the pandemic began. Deaths related to COVID-19 in the United States have now surpassed 787,000.
Last month, the CDC issued a new reportTrusted Source that stated unvaccinated people are more than twice as likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19 than vaccinated people, and they’re more than seven times as likely to die from the disease.
Experts say the pandemic isn’t behind us yet and are concerned about potential surges from Thanksgiving travel, colder weather, and the Omicron variant that was identified late last week.
“I am concerned that the travel and family reunions over the Thanksgiving holiday will have provided the Delta variant opportunities to have been passed around along with the turkey and cranberry sauce. As a consequence, I anticipate some increase in cases during December,” Dr. William Schaffner, an infectious disease specialist from Vanderbilt University in Tennessee, told Healthline.
“Whether Omicron will contribute depends entirely on the speed and frequency of its introduction into the U.S.,” Schaffner added. “I acknowledge that Omicron may already be here, undetected.”
“I am very concerned,” Dr. Jamila Taylor, director of healthcare reform and a senior fellow at The Century Foundation, told Healthline. “The early reports coming out in regard to the Omicron variant are cause for alarm, especially as we head into intense travel during the holiday season.”
Both experts said the Omicron variant reemphasizes how important vaccinations are.
“Vaccination of all who are unvaccinated (both adults and children 5 and older), as well as boosting of all eligible age 18 and older, will provide both the best protection against Delta as well as the best partial protection against Omicron,” Schaffner said.
“Remember, partial protection always is better than no protection,” he said.
“It is absolutely more important than ever for people to get vaccinated,” Taylor added. “Variants are emerging because we have yet to see high enough numbers of people getting fully vaccinated. And now that booster shots are available to all who want them in the United States, extra protection is readily available.”
When might we see the end of the pandemic, and what might life look like, at least in the United States?
“It is hard to even envision this thing being completely eliminated,” Taylor said. “Even if the virus itself were to be eliminated, the effects will be seen over the long term, for sure. The economic, mental, and physical health effects of COVID-19 have changed the lives of millions of people.”
“The COVID virus will not disappear,” Schaffner said. “We will have to learn how to cope with it as we do with influenza. We may need periodic booster doses of COVID vaccine, but that interval has yet to be determined.”
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