Important update: Healthcare facilities
CDC has updated select ways to operate healthcare systems effectively in response to COVID-19 vaccination. Learn more
UPDATE
Given new evidence on the B.1.617.2 (Delta) variant, CDC has updated the guidance for fully vaccinated people. CDC recommends universal indoor masking for all teachers, staff, students, and visitors to K-12 schools, regardless of vaccination status. Children should return to full-time in-person learning in the fall with layered prevention strategies in place.
UPDATE
The White House announced that vaccines will be required for international travelers coming into the United States, with an effective date of November 8, 2021. For purposes of entry into the United States, vaccines accepted will include FDA approved or authorized and WHO Emergency Use Listing vaccines. More information is available here.
UPDATE
Travel requirements to enter the United States are changing, starting November 8, 2021. More information is available here.

Baby Talk

Baby Talk
Subscribe to the Weekly Review

Interpretive Summary for December 3, 2021

Baby Talk

COVID Data Tracker Pregnancy Data Page - Case trends and demographics - Hospitalization a nd disease severity - Birth and infant outcomes Find the latest data on CDC's COVID Data Tracker 12-03-2021

As of December 2, 2021, more than 234 million people in the United States have received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. However, vaccination among pregnant people remains low. CDC’s COVID Data Tracker shows that as of November 27, 2021, the proportion of fully vaccinated pregnant people has increased to 35%, but most pregnant people remain unprotected against COVID-19. CDC recommends that people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, trying to get pregnant now, or who might become pregnant in the future, get vaccinated against COVID-19. CDC also recommends that fully vaccinated pregnant people 18 years and older receive a COVID-19 booster dose.

People who are pregnant or were recently pregnant are at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19, including ICU admission, ventilator use, and death. A recent studyexternal icon found that for pregnant people with COVID-19 after Delta became predominant, the risk of ICU admission was 66% higher than before Delta became predominant. The risk of needing a ventilator or special equipment to breathe was 63% higher, and the risk of death was more than 2 times higher than in the pre-Delta period.* A second study found that compared with people without a COVID-19 diagnosis at delivery, pregnant people with a COVID-19 diagnosis at delivery had nearly twice the risk of having a stillbirth.** After Delta become predominant, women with COVID-19 during pregnancy had 4 times the risk of having a stillbirth.

Getting a COVID-19 vaccine can prevent severe illness, death, and pregnancy complications related to COVID-19. CDC data show that COVID-19 vaccines are safe for people who are pregnant, including those early in pregnancy. Additionally, there is currently no evidence that any vaccines, including COVID-19 vaccines, cause fertility problems in women or men. Many people have become pregnant after receiving a COVID-19 vaccine, including some who got vaccinated during COVID-19 vaccine clinical trials. If you have questions about getting vaccinated, talk with your healthcare provider. To find a vaccine provider near you, visit vaccines.gov; text your ZIP code to 438829 (GETVAX); or call 1-800-232-0233.

*The risk for severe illness also increased for non-pregnant women of reproductive age (15─44 years) with COVID-19 during the Delta period, compared with the pre-Delta period.

**COVID-19 diagnosis may have represented a current or past infection.

Note to readers: CDC’s COVID Data Tracker now features a Pregnancy Data page which catalogs all pregnancy-related data available on COVID Data Tracker and provides links to resource on COVID-19 in pregnancy. Resources and tools are available to help people who are pregnant, breastfeeding, and new parents caring for infants protect their health.

What's New

Reported Cases

The current 7-day moving average of daily new cases (86,413) decreased 8.5% compared with the previous 7-day moving average (94,393). A total of 48,628,787 COVID-19 cases have been reported as of December 1, 2021.

On November 26, 2021, the World Health Organization (WHO) classified a new variant, B.1.1.529, as a Variant of Concern (VOC) and named it Omicron. On November 30, 2021, the United States also classified it as a VOC. On December 1, 2021, CDC announced that the first confirmed case of Omicron variant had been detected in the United States. Additional suspected cases of Omicron are being investigated. Despite the detection of Omicron, Delta remains the predominant strain in the United States. Nowcast projections* for the week ending November 27, 2021, estimate the national and regional proportions of Delta to be greater than 99%.

CDC has been actively monitoring and preparing for this variant and will continue to work with other U.S. and global public health and industry partners to learn more. For more information on variant proportions, visit COVID Data Tracker.

48,628,787
Total Cases Reported

86,413
Current 7-Day Average**

94,393
Prior 7-Day Average

-8.5%
Change in 7-Day Average since Prior Week 

* 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. CDC’s Nowcast is a data projection tool that helps fill this gap by generating timely estimates of variant proportions for variants that are circulating in the United States. View Nowcast estimates on CDC’s COVID Data Tracker website on the Variant Proportions page.

** Historical cases are excluded from daily new cases and 7-day average calculations until they are incorporated into the dataset for the applicable date. Of 348,267 historical cases reported retroactively, 574 were reported in the current week and 11,899 were reported in the prior week.

Daily Trends in COVID-19 Cases in the United States Reported to CDC

red line

7-Day moving average

Daily Trends in COVID-19 Cases in the United States Reported to CDC 12-03-2021

Vaccinations

The U.S. COVID-19 Vaccination Program began December 14, 2020. As of December 2, 2021, 464.4 million vaccine doses have been administered. Overall, about 234.3 million people, or 70.6% of the total U.S. population, have received at least one dose of vaccine. About 197.8 million people, or 59.6% of the total U.S. population, have been fully vaccinated.* About 43.0 million additional/booster doses in fully vaccinated people have been reported. As of December 2, 2021, the 7-day average number of administered vaccine doses reported (by date of CDC report) to CDC per day was 1,428,263, a 22.0% increase from the previous week.

CDC’s COVID Data Tracker Vaccination Demographic Trends tab shows vaccination trends by age group. As of December 2, 2021, 99.9% of people ages 65 years or older have received at least one dose of vaccine and 86.4% are fully vaccinated. More than three-quarters (83.0%) of people ages 18 years or older have received at least one dose of vaccine and 71.3% are fully vaccinated. For people ages 12 years or older, 81.0% have received at least one dose of vaccine and 69.5% are fully vaccinated. For people ages 5 years or older, 75.0% have received at least one dose of vaccine and 63.4% are fully vaccinated.

464,445,580
Vaccines Administered

234,269,053
People who received at least one dose

197,838,728
People who are fully vaccinated*

70.6%
Percentage of the US population that has received at least one dose

59.6%
Percentage of the US population that has been fully vaccinated*

+0.9
Percentage point increase from last week

+0.5
Percentage point increase 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 or Moderna 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 CDC Report, United States

red line

7-Day moving average

Daily Change in the Total Number of Administered COVID-19 Vaccine Doses Reported to CDC by the Date of CDC Report, United States 12-03-2021

Hospitalizations

New Hospital Admissions

The current 7-day daily average for November 24–November 30, 2021, was 6,386. This is a 5.0% increase from the prior 7-day average (6,082) from November 17–November 23, 2021.

3,419,480
Total New Admissions

6,386
Current 7-Day Average

6,082
Prior 7-Day Average

+5.0%
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

Daily Trends in Number of New COVID-19 Hospital Admissions in the United States 12-03-2021

New admissions are pulled from a 10 am EST snapshot of the HHS Unified Hospital Timeseries 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 and Medicaid Services (CMS) Provider of Services file, which is used to identify the cohort of included hospitals.

COVID-NET: Hospitalizations in Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native People

CDC’s Coronavirus Disease 2019-Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET) shows that since the start of the pandemic, people from racial and ethnic minority groups have been at increased risk for COVID-19-associated hospitalizations compared to non-Hispanic White people. For the week ending November 13, 2021, the rate of COVID-19-associated hospitalizations in non-Hispanic American Indian/Alaska Native people was 23 per 100,000 people. This is the highest hospitalization rate among all racial and ethnic minority groups and represents a substantial increase over the past three months.*

* It is important to note that these increases might be driven by a limited number of COVID-NET sites and might not be nationally representative.

Hospitalizations in Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native People

COVID-Net chart Hospitalizations in Non-Hispanic American Indian and Alaska Native People 12-03-2021

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 standardized case reporting form.

More COVID-NET Data

Deaths

The current 7-day moving average of new deaths (860) has decreased 12.6% compared with the previous 7-day moving average (983). As of December 1, 2021, a total of 781,963 COVID-19 deaths have been reported in the United States.

781,963
Total Deaths Reported

860
Current 7-Day Average*

983
Prior 7-Day Average

-12.6%
Change in 7-Day Average Since Prior Week

* Historical deaths are excluded from the daily new deaths and 7-day average calculations until they are incorporated into the dataset by their applicable date. Of 14,561 historical deaths reported retroactively, 230 were reported in the current week; and 3,052 were reported in the prior week.

Daily Trends in Number of COVID-19 Deaths in the United States Reported to CDC

red line

7-Day moving average

Daily Trends in Number of COVID-19 Deaths in the United States Reported to CDC 12-03-2021 More Death Data

Testing

The percentage of COVID-19 NAATs (nucleic acid amplification tests)* that are positive (percent positivity) has increased from the previous week. The 7-day average of percent positivity from NAATs is now 7.8%. The 7-day average number of tests reported for November 19 – November 25, 2021, was 1,188,742, down 17.6% from 1,441,869 for the prior 7 days.

665,853,403
Total Tests Reported

665,853,403
Total Tests Reported

1,188,742
7-Day Average Tests Reported

7.8%
7-Day Average % Positivity

665,853,403
Total Tests Reported

6.2%
Previous 7-Day Average % Positivity

+1.57
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

COVID-19 NAAT Laboratory Test 7-day Percent Positivity by State/Territory 12-03-2021