Very contagious winter disease now has much higher spikes in summer as cases grow across US
Forget cold and flu season.Experts are warning that a highly contagious virus many Americans still associate with the winter is now flourishing in the summer months.And the latest numbers suggest the bug is gaining ground: Infections are growing or likely growing in all 50 states, according to a data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.That nationwide COVID spread is drawing attention from health officials, particularly after last summer’s surge.“Our summer peak was much higher in 2025 than it was in the winter,” Dr.
Erica Pan, director of the California Department of Public Health and the state public health officer, told the Los Angeles Times.For now, this summer’s wave isn’t as bad as it was last year.Nationwide wastewater viral activity levels were considered “very low” as of Aug.
14, as were emergency department visits related to the respiratory disease.Last week, nearly 4% of COVID tests came back positive — compared with more than 9% during the same week a year ago, according to the CDC.At the time, the US was contending with a surge fueled by the “Stratus” variant, which left Americans battling a persistent, dry cough and other symptoms well into the fall.That strain and the “cicada” variant — so called for its long hibernation period and noisy return last year — are feeling the uptick.But just because the current COVID wave is lagging behind last summer doesn’t mean Americans are in the clear.In fact, infections are climbing nationwide, with rates increasing sharply over the last month — particularly in the South and West.As of Aug.
17, at least 15 states and territories were experiencing active COVID outbreaks, according to the Pandemic Mitigation Collaborative’s data tracker.“That is troubling, especially if you’re in one of those areas,” Michael Hoerger, an assistant professor at Tulane University School of Medicine who leads the PMC, told Today.“We’re expecting transmission to peak about a ...