U.S. health officials have warned that the country could be facing a never-before-seen "tripledemic" outbreak during the holiday season. The tripledemic will be composed of COVID-19, respiratory syncytial virus and the flu all affecting the country at the same time.
Here are 15 things for physician leaders to know about COVID-19, RSV and flu status heading into the holiday season:
COVID-19:
1. The U.S. saw 303,101 new COVID-19 cases during the week of Dec. 1, the CDC reported.
2. The U.S. saw 1,780 COVID-19 deaths during the same week.
3. The daily average for new admissions is 4,863.
4. About 39,719,443 people in the U.S. have received at least one updated vaccine booster.
5. About 80.5 percent of the U.S. population has received at least one vaccine dose.
Influenza:
1. Eleven states were ranked as having the highest level of flu activity during the week of Dec. 2 by the CDC.
2. About 25.1 percent of flu tests came back positive across the U.S. this week.
3. The CDC estimates there have been 8.7 million flu infections already this season.
4. The rate of infections this year is the highest seen since the 2010-11 season.
5. The number of flu hospital admissions reports doubled this week from last week.
6. There have been 4,500 deaths in the U.S. from the flu this season.
RSV:
1. The CDC issued a new official warning on RSV this week, warning providers of an uptick in RSV-related emergency room visits and hospital admissions.
2. While most people recover from RSV within a week or two, it can have severe consequences for children and older populations.
3. For the week of Nov. 26, 16.4 percent of given RSV PCR tests came back positive and 12.4 percent of antigen tests came back positive.
4. The Eastern region has been hit with the highest number of cases as of Dec. 7.