By Leada Gore
Source AL
The U.S. is experiencing a summer surge of COVID cases with emergency room visits and deaths from the virus all increasing.
The latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show emergency room visits increased more than 23% from June 16 to June 22 and death due to COVID was up 14.3% in recent weeks. The percent of all U.S. deaths from COVID remains low, however, at 0.8%, and all indicators remain far below past surges.
Experts attribute the upswing to a growth in FLiRT variants, which include KP.3, KP.2 and KP.1.1 or any others starting with KP or JN. FLiRT variants, all part of the omicron line, are the dominant variants across the U.S. with two – KP.3 and KP.2 – accounting for more than 50% of all current cases.