Daily COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. are falling, according to the CDC's COVID-19 data tracker weekly review published March 18, amid concerns the omicron subvariant BA.2 may fuel another uptick in cases.
Eleven findings:
Vaccinations
1. As of March 16, about 254.8 million people — 76.7 percent of the total U.S. population — have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine, and more than 216.8 million people, or 65.3 percent of the population, have received both doses.
2. About 96.2 million additional or booster doses in fully vaccinated people have been reported. Nearly 50 percent of people eligible for a booster dose have not yet gotten one, the CDC said.
3. The seven-day average number of vaccines administered daily was 249,521 as of March 16, a 17.6 percent decrease from the previous week.
Variants
4. Based on projections for the week ending March 12, the CDC estimated that the omicron variant accounts for 100 percent of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S.
5. CDC estimates that BA.1.1 accounts for 66.1 percent of cases, while the BA.2 subvariant accounts for 23.1 percent of cases. Other omicron subvariants make up the rest.
Cases
6. As of March 16, the nation's seven-day case average was 30,040, a 16.6 percent decrease from the previous week's average
Deaths
7. The current seven-day death average is 1,052, down 11.4 percent from the previous week's average. This marks the sixth consecutive week deaths have fallen. Some historical deaths have been excluded from these counts, the CDC said.
Hospitalizations
8. The seven-day hospitalization average for March 9-15 was 2,298, a 27.2 percent decrease from the previous week's average.
9. New CDC research also shows pediatric COVID-19 hospitalization rates were higher than flu hospitalization rates during each of the three seasons before the pandemic. For example, the COVID-19-associated hospitalization rate was 48.2 per 100,000 between October 2020 and September 2021, compared to a flu-associated hospitalization rate of 41.7 per 100,000 for the 2019-20 season.
Testing
10. The seven-day average for percent positivity from tests is 2.2 percent, down 0.59 percent from the previous week.
11. The nation's seven-day average test volume for the week of March 4-10 was 858,144, down 11.2 percent from the prior week's average.