Jan. 2, 2024 – The big three respiratory illnesses of the flu, COVID-19, and RSV are showing up at high levels across the country, and further increases due to holiday gatherings are expected.
The rate of testing positive for one of the viruses that causes those three main respiratory illnesses is now well above 10% nationwide, with the flu being the most likely culprit. New national data shows that 16% of flu tests are now returning positive and nearly 13% of COVID and RSV tests are positive.
The CDC cautioned that some of these figures, which include cases diagnosed through Dec. 23, may be undercounts due to possible data reporting delays.
“Remember, all of these numbers are before people got together for the holidays,” Peter Hotez, MD, PhD, dean of the National School of Tropical Medicine at the Baylor College of Medicine, told CNN. “So don’t be disappointed or surprised that we [may] even see a bigger bump as we head into January.”
Six states are now seeing respiratory illnesses at the highest levels of the CDC’s 13-level severity reporting system: Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi, New Mexico, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
Nationwide, respiratory illnesses accounted for 8 of every 100 visits to emergency rooms during the week ending Dec. 23, the CDC reported.
Public health officials typically watch how many people are being hospitalized due to an illness to see how severe circulating strains are and also to monitor the strain on health care systems. For the week ending Dec. 23, more than 14,700 people were hospitalized for the flu nationwide, and 29,059 people were hospitalized due to COVID. But hospital occupancy rates for any health problem are holding relatively steady around 76% of beds filled nationally, CDC data shows.
Wastewater monitoring of COVID, as well as of the flu and RSV, from the private firm Biobot showed more detections in recent weeks for both COVID and the flu, with RSV potentially dipping lower in the week ending Dec. 23. CDC data for RSV case counts also showed a sizable week-over-week drop for that time period.
Vaccines are available to protect against severe cases of the flu, COVID, and RSV. Antiviral treatments are available, too, for people who are diagnosed, including Tamiflu to treat the flu and Paxlovid to treat COVID.