Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People
COVID-19 Homepage
Treat Early, Prevent Hospitalization
Interpretive Summary for December 09, 2022
Treat Early, Prevent Hospitalization
If you test positive and are more likely to get very sick from COVID-19, treatments are available. In a new CDC study, adults who were prescribed Paxlovid for mild to moderate COVID-19 were over 50% less likely to be hospitalized with COVID-19. CDC researchers assessed electronic health record data and found that receiving Paxlovid was associated with a lower overall hospitalization rate across age groups, whether they were vaccinated or not. Paxlovid is recommended for people who are more likely to get very sick and hospitalized with COVID-19, especially older adults and those with multiple medical conditions, regardless of vaccination status.
As we enter the holiday season, it’s important to take steps to protect yourself and others from serious illness with COVID-19, including staying up to date on COVID-19 vaccines and promptly talking to your healthcare provider about treatment options if you test positive for COVID-19.
If you have COVID-19 symptoms:
- Test : Use a self-test, locate a test site, or find a Test to TreatExternal location.
- Talk: If you test positive, talk to a healthcare professional to determine if you are eligible for treatment, even if your symptoms are mild right now.
- Treat: Start treatment within five days of developing symptoms.
Note to Readers: Paxlovid is not a replacement for COVID-19 vaccination. COVID-19 vaccination makes you much less likely to get very sick. Still, some vaccinated people, especially those ages 65 years or older or who have other risk factors for severe disease, may benefit from treatment if they get COVID-19. A healthcare provider will help decide which treatment, if any, is right for you.
- COVID Data Tracker’s Rates of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by Vaccination Status now displays early data on updated (bivalent) booster doses for select jurisdictions.
- COVID Data Tracker’s Vaccination Among Pregnant People tab now displays the percent of pregnant people ages 18–49 years who received an updated (bivalent) booster dose before or during pregnancy overall, by race and ethnicity, and by week.
- COVID Data Tracker’s County View page now displays updated (bivalent) booster dose data for all eligible age groups at the county level.
- Effectiveness of Bivalent mRNA Vaccines in Preventing Symptomatic SARS-CoV-2 Infection — Increasing Community Access to Testing Program, United States, September–November 2022
- Paxlovid Associated with Decreased Hospitalization Rate Among Adults with COVID-19 — United States, April–September 2022
- SARS-CoV-2 Serology and Self-Reported Infection Among Adults — National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, United States, August 2021–May 2022
COVID-19 Community Levels*
As of December 8, 2022, there are 298 (9.3%) counties, districts, or territories with a high COVID-19 Community Level, 1,131 (35.1%) counties with a medium Community Level, and 1,787 (55.5%) counties with a low Community Level. Compared with last week, this represents an increase (+3.6 percentage points) in the number of high-level counties, an increase (+10.3 percentage points) in the number of medium-level counties, and a decrease (-13.8 percentage points) in the number of low-level counties. Overall, 48 out of 52 jurisdictions** had high- or medium-level counties this week. The District of Columbia, Hawaii, Maine and New Hampshire, are the only jurisdictions to have all counties at low Community Levels.
To check your COVID-19 Community Level, visit COVID Data Tracker. To learn which prevention measures are recommended based on your COVID-19 Community Level, visit COVID-19 Community Level and COVID-19 Prevention.
*CDC recommends use of COVID-19 Community Levels to determine the impact of COVID-19 on communities and to take action. CDC also provides Community Transmission Levels to describe the amount of COVID-19 spread within each county. Healthcare facilities use Community Transmission Levels to determine infection control interventions.
**Includes the 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico.
Reported Cases
As of December 7, 2022, the current 7-day average of weekly new cases (65,569) increased 49.6% compared with the previous 7-day average (43,825). A total of 99,241,649 COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States as of December 7, 2022.
Variant Proportions
CDC Nowcast projections* for the week ending December 10, 2022, estimate the proportion of lineages designated as Omicron with estimates above 1%: BA.5—and four of its sublineages (BQ.1, BQ.1.1, BF.7, and BA.5.2.6)—BA.4.6, and XBB. XBB is a recombinant of two BA.2 sublineages.
The two predominant Omicron lineages and the two that are increasing this week are BQ.1.1, projected to be 36.8% (95% PI 34.1-39.6%) and BQ.1, projected to be 31.1% (95% PI 29.0-33.4%) nationally. All other lineages (BA.5, BF.7, XBB, BN.1, BA.5.2.6, and BA.4.6) are decreasing in proportion this week compared to last.
See COVID Data Tracker for the proportions of all relevant lineages currently circulating.
99,241,649
Total Cases Reported
65,569
Current 7-Day Average**
43,825
Previous 7-Day Average
+49.6%
Change in 7-Day Average since Previous Period
*CDC uses Nowcast projections to predict current variant proportions circulating in the United States. The median time from specimen collection to sequence data reporting is about 3 weeks. As a result, weighted estimates for the most recent few weeks may be unstable or unavailable. View Nowcast estimates on CDC’s COVID Data Tracker website on the Variant Proportions page.
**Historical cases are excluded from weekly new cases and 7-day average calculations until they are incorporated into the dataset for the applicable date. No historical cases reported at this time.
Weekly Trends in COVID-19 Cases in the United States Reported to CDC
Vaccinations
As of December 7, 2022, 657.9 million vaccine doses have been administered in the United States. Overall, about 228.6 million people, or 68.9% of the total U.S. population, have completed a primary series.* More than 42.0 million people, or 13.5% of the U.S. population ages 5 years and older, have received an updated (bivalent) booster dose.
657,927,289
Vaccine Doses Administered
42,195,019
Updated (Bivalent) Booster Doses Administered
228,604,758
People who have completed a primary series* (68.9% of the U.S. population)
42,017,288
People who have received an updated (bivalent) booster (13.5% of the U.S. population)
+0.1
Percentage point change from last week
+0.8%
Percentage point change from last week
*Represents the number of people who have received the second dose in a two-dose COVID-19 vaccine series (such as the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, or Novavax vaccines) or one dose of the single-shot Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine.
Daily Change in the Total Number of Administered COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Reported to CDC by the Date of Administration, United States
7-Day moving average
COVID-19 Updated (Bivalent) Booster Dose Administration, United States
5,605,899
Total New Admissions
4,844
Current 7-Day Average
4,256
Prior 7-Day Average
+13.8%
Change in 7-Day Average
The start of consistent reporting of hospital admissions data was August 1, 2020.
Daily Trends in Number of New COVID-19 Hospital Admissions in the United States
New admissions are pulled from a 10 am EDT snapshot of the HHS Unified Hospital Data – Analytic Dataset. Due to potential reporting delays, data from the most recent 7 days, as noted in the figure above with the grey bar, should be interpreted with caution. Small shifts in historic data may also occur due to changes in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Provider of Services file, which is used to identify the cohort of included hospitals.
COVID-NET: Recent Trends in Hospitalization Rates among Adults and Children (All Ages)
CDC’s Coronavirus Disease 2019-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) shows that COVID-19-associated hospitalizations remain elevated among adults ages 65 years and older, the age group with the highest rate of COVID-19-associated hospitalization. Among adults ages 65 years and older, rates have remained elevated for more than two months, with hospitalization rates ranging from 21.1–26.2 per 100,000 between September 10 and November 19, 2022.
Weekly Rates of COVID-19-Associated Hospitalizations among Adults Ages 65 Years and Older
The Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19)-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) is an additional source for hospitalization data collected through a network of more than 250 acute-care hospitals in 14 states (representing ~10% of the U.S. population). Detailed data on patient demographics, including race/ethnicity, underlying medical conditions, medical interventions, and clinical outcomes, are collected using a standardized case reporting form.
Deaths
The current 7-day average of new deaths (426) increased 61.7% compared with the previous 7-day average (263). As of December 7, 2022, a total of 1,080,472 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the United States.
1,080,472
Total Deaths Reported
426
Current 7-Day Average*
263
Prior 7-Day Average
+61.7%
Change in 7-Day Average Since Prior Period
*Historical deaths are excluded from the weekly new deaths and 7-day average calculations until they are incorporated into the dataset by their applicable date. Of 1,037 historical deaths reported retroactively, none were reported in the current week and none were reported in the prior week.
Testing
The percentage of COVID-19 NAATs (nucleic acid amplification tests)* that are positive is increasing in comparison to the previous week. The 7-day average of percent positivity from NAATs is now 11.7%. The 7-day average number of tests reported for November 25–December 1, 2022, was 330,003, down 8.7% from 361,513 for the prior 7 days.
990,581,371
Total Tests Reported
330,003
7-Day Average Tests Reported
11.7%
7-Day Average % Positivity
10.7%
Previous 7-Day Average % Positivity
+0.96
Percentage point change in 7-Day Average % Positivity since Prior Week
*Test for SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19
COVID-19 NAAT Laboratory Test 7-day Percent Positivity by State/Territory
Wastewater Surveillance
COVID Data Tracker’s Wastewater Surveillance tab tracks levels, changes, and detections of SARS-CoV-2* viral RNA in wastewater at over 1,300 testing sites across the country.
Currently, about 64% of sites across the country are reporting moderate to high SARS-CoV-2 levels in wastewater. About 38% of sites reporting wastewater data are currently seeing some of the highest levels for those sites since December 1, 2021. About 27% of sites are experiencing a decrease in SARS-CoV-2 levels, and about 65% are reporting an increase.
For more information on how to use wastewater data, visit CDC’s wastewater surveillance website.
*The virus that causes COVID-19
SARS-CoV-2 Levels in Wastewater by Site
0% denotes that levels are the lowest they have been at the site; 100% denotes that levels are the highest they have been at the site.