CDC to switch from daily COVID data updates to weekly COVID data updates

October 8, 2022 – The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it will begin updating COVID-19 cases and death counts on a weekly rather than daily basis starting October 20.
To allow additional flexibility in reporting, reduce the reporting burden on states and jurisdictions, and maximize surveillance resources, the CDC is moving to a weekly reporting cadence for line level, case and total death data. Center for Disease Control Thursday said.
The CDC is still providing daily data on COVID hospital admissions, using information from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. It is not known if that will change when the National Healthcare Safety Network takes charge of COVID hospital data collection in mid-December, The Center for Disease Control said.
The CDC has been publishing daily COVID data for more than two years. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) COVID community level assessments are already updated once a week, on Thursdays. State and local governments use community-level classifications in determining when and where citizens should be advised to wear masks.
The change is another sign of the de-escalation of the COVID response as major pandemic statistics decline. The New York Times reported that on October 7, the average number of new coronavirus cases in the United States per day was 40,186 (a 26% decrease over two weeks), and 26,994 hospital admissions related to COVID (a decrease of 11 %), and 380 COVID-related deaths (11%). Health experts say the number of cases is actually higher because many home test results are not reported to health agencies.
Earlier this week, the CDC announced that it would not maintain a list of travel advisories for foreign countries because “fewer countries are testing or reporting cases of COVID-19,” New York times mentioned. Instead, the CDC will publish health notices only when it comes to a “relevant Covid-19 variant” in a specific country.
Anthony Fauci, the White House’s chief medical adviser, said Tuesday that coronavirus cases may rise this winter, especially if a new type of COVID emerges.
Fauci said in a discussion hosted by USC Annenberg Center for Health Journalism. “We are entering the winter months, where regardless of respiratory illness, there is always a risk of a slight increase.”