Any lingering doubts about whether the U.S. would be hit by another wave of COVID-19 infections are, unfortunately, being put to rest as case numbers across the country continue to rise. According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the daily average number of new infections currently exceeds 100,000, and data from Johns Hopkins University show a 54% jump in new cases in the last two weeks.
The latest surge is being attributed to the highly contagious Omicron subvariants—which can infect people over and over again—and comes after many health restrictions have been lifted across the U.S. Between those policy changes and general pandemic fatigue, many people are also taking fewer precautions than they used to. Even though it feels like everyone knows someone else who has COVID-19 right now, a new Gallup poll found that a third of Americans surveyed think the pandemic is over, and the majority say their lives are either entirely or somewhat back to normal.
Officials in the Biden Administration estimate that roughly a third of people live in communities that the CDC classifies as high risk. But even that may be an undercount. Because at-home rapid testing is so prevalent—leaving so many positive results out of the official tally—and many states are now reporting case numbers less frequently, it’s hard to know just how bad this wave really is. Jessica Malaty Rivera, an epidemiologist at the Rockefeller Foundation’s Pandemic Prevention Institute, recently told the Washington Post that “any sort of look at the metrics on either a local, state, or national level is a severe undercount.” In response to this latest surge, federal health officials are calling on local officials to reinstate indoor mask recommendations.
Meanwhile, many people continue to wait as both Pfizer and Moderna push to make their COVID-19 vaccines available to children under 5 years old, the only U.S. population left to vaccinate. (Just today, Pfizer-BioNTech announced that its three-dose COVID-19 vaccine is effective at preventing disease in kids younger than five.) Omicron-specific vaccines are also in the works, and experts hope treatments like Paxlovid will become more widely accessible. And while there’s hope that warmer weather will ease some of the surge as people get back outdoors, officials are warning that summertime isn’t inherently safer: scorching temperatures can drive people indoors to stay cool, where the chance of infection is higher.
It’s important to continue taking simple yet effective precautions to help reduce your chances of contracting or spreading COVID-19. Get vaccinated and boosted when eligible, wear protective masks in all indoor public spaces and in crowded outdoor settings, and use rapid tests before large gatherings or traveling. As the head of the World Health Organization, Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, warned yesterday, the pandemic is “most certainly not over.”
TODAY'S CORONAVIRUS OUTLOOK
More than 525.2 million people around the world had been diagnosed with COVID-19 as of 12 a.m. E.T. today, and more than 6.2 million people have died. On May 22, there were 376,272 new cases and 1,115 new deaths confirmed globally.
Here's how the world as a whole is currently trending, in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
And here's every country that has reported over 10 million cases:
The U.S. had recorded more than 83.2 million coronavirus cases as of 12 a.m. E.T. today. More than 1 million people have died. On May 22, there were 25,428 new cases reported and 126 new deaths confirmed in the U.S.
Here's how the country as a whole is currently trending in terms of cases:
And in terms of deaths:
Here's where daily cases have risen or fallen over the last 14 days, shown in confirmed cases per 100,000 residents:
All numbers unless otherwise specified are from the Johns Hopkins University Center for Systems Science and Engineering, and are accurate as of May 23, 12 a.m. E.T. To see larger, interactive versions of these maps and charts, click here.
WHAT ELSE YOU SHOULD KNOW
Pfizer and BioNTech announced today that three shots of their low-dose COVID-19 vaccine provide strong protection against infection for children under 5. The company plans to submit its data for review to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which has already begun looking at data from Moderna’s two-dose vaccine for children six months to six years old.
The pandemic has been lucrative for the ultra-rich. Since 2020, 573 people have become billionaires, according to a new Oxfam analysis reported by CNN. Much of this new wealth was added during the first year of the pandemic, mostly thanks to a strong stock market. At the opposite end of the financial spectrum, rising prices and inequality could send more than 263 million people into extreme poverty this year.
And on Friday, a district judge blocked the Biden Administration from lifting Title 42, a health restriction authorized by the CDC under President Trump that allowed migrants to be expelled from the U.S. to slow the spread of COVID-19. The administration had hoped to end the controversial program on May 23.
Thanks for reading. We hope you find the Coronavirus Brief newsletter to be a helpful tool to navigate this very complex situation, and welcome feedback at coronavirus.brief@time.com. If you have specific questions you'd like us to answer, please send them to covidquestions@time.com.
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Today's newsletter was written by Kyla Mandel and edited by Mandy Oaklander.
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