Why is US seeing a surge of COVID hospitalisations?

COVID-19 cases are climbing in the United States.

New data from the Centers for Disease Control show hospitalisations have spiked around 12 per cent around the country, according to several media reports.

But what happened? And why is this happening?

Let’s take a closer look:

What happened?

CBS News quoted the CDC as saying its data showed 8,035 hospital admissions from COVID-19 from the 22 July week across America.

According to the CDC, emergency room visits for COVID-19 patients have also been on the uptick -- .092 per cent for the week ending 28 July compared to .51 per cent for the same period in June.

"US COVID-19 rates are still near historic lows after seven months of steady declines.  Early indicators of COVID-19 activity (emergency department visits, test positivity and wastewater levels) preceded an increase in hospitalizations seen this past week," CDC spokesperson Kathleen Conley said in a statement on 25 July.

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Hindustan Times quoted Conley as saying, “Early indicators of Covid-19 activity (emergency department visits, test positivity and wastewater levels) preceded an increase in hospitalisations seen this past week.”

“After roughly six, seven months of steady declines, things are starting to tick back up again," the CDC’s Dr Brendan Jackson told NPR.

“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 hospitalisations tick up as well,” Jackson said.

“This could be the start of a late summer wave," he added.

Why is this happening?

The CDC says say no new variant is responsible for the surge.

"At this time, CDC's genomic surveillance indicates that the increase in infections is caused by strains closely related to the Omicron strains that have been circulating since early 2022," Conley said.

However, Conley noted that COVID-19 infections remain at ‘near-historic’ lows and that deaths are declining and at the lowest ebb since the CDC began tracking it, as per Hindustan Times.

Centers for Disease Control says this isn't unexpected. Reuters

The CDC also says this isn’t unexpected.

Conley was quoted by CBS as saying that the US had experienced similar increases in COVID-19 cases over the past few summers.

“So it's not surprising to see an uptick," Conley added.

But not everyone agrees.

Dr Trupti Gilada told Daily O it is possible a new variant could be responsible for the rising infections.

“A little mutated variant could be the reason behind the surge, and since people do not have immunity against it, they might be catching COVID but there is nothing to worry about,” Gilada added.

Speaking to Fox News about the rising numbers, Dr Marc Siegel, professor of medicine at NYU Langone Medical Center, said, “I don't see this as a harbinger of another surge.”

“These are just embers of a fire not completely out,” Siegel added.

Still, Siegel said he would ‘likely recommend’ the new booster – particularly for those belonging to high-risk groups who hadn’t been infected or vaccinated lately.

With inputs from agencies