SEATTLE — Coronavirus trends in Washington state remain steady despite an uptick in hospitalizations nationwide and the emergence of a new virus variant.
The country has seen a 12.5% increase in hospitalizations in the last week, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) COVID Data Tracker dashboard. The states contributing to the increase in hospitalization rates include Virginia, Minnesota, Iowa, Hawaii, and Alabama.
In Washington, hospitalizations remain low at a rate of 2.7 per 100,000 people in the last week, according to the Washington State Department of Health’s COVID-19 data dashboard.
In King County, the seven-day hospitalization rate did see an uptick in July but leveled off last week. The seven-day case rate increased to 24.4 last week, up from a rate of 18.4 that was reported around this time last month. Despite the uptick in the seven-day rate increase, King County’s community transmission level remains low.
The small uptick in hospitalizations nationwide is coinciding with the rise of a new strain of the virus, EG.5, nicknamed “Eris.” The new strain is reportedly a descendant of the XBB subvariant, which descended from the omicron variant. The CDC estimates that EG.5 is contributing to 17% of all COVID-19 cases in the country as of this week, making it the current dominant strain.
A new COVID-19 vaccine booster is expected sometime this fall, although it is unknown how effective the new booster will be against EG.5. The Food and Drug Administration said the booster will be updated to specifically target the XBB-lineage of the omicron variant.