(NEXSTAR) – For the second week in a row, the number of people in the U.S. being admitted to the hospital with COVID-19 rose by a significant percentage.
An additional 9,056 people were hospitalized with the virus last week, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, representing a 12.5% jump over the previous week.
The current summer wave of COVID hospitalizations started a few weeks ago. Last week, the number of new hospitalizations was up 12.1% over the week before.
But in about two dozen states, the surge in hospitalizations is far more than 12%. Alabama, Alaska, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, Pennsylvania, South Dakota, Vermont and Wyoming all saw at least a 20% increase in new COVID hospitalizations.
New Hampshire saw the biggest jump in a single week at 96% — nearby doubling the number of hospital admissions from the week before.
The percentage increase in new COVID-19 hospitalizations is illustrated in the interactive map below. (Hover your cursor over the map to view each state’s data.)
States shaded in yellow and orange have seen hospitalizations decrease over the past week. Red states saw hospitalization numbers stay relatively stable. Those in purple saw a moderate increase, according to CDC data, while those in blue saw a substantial jump.
Based on the map, Iowa saw a 28% increase in COVID hospitalizations, which is higher than the jump in neighboring Missouri, at just 19%. However, to the northwest, South Dakota saw a 50% jump in hospitalizations, and neighboring Illinois saw a 30% increase in hospitalizations.
Taking a closer look, county-by-county data shows the surge isn't happening everywhere at the same time. Within a single state, one area could see hospitalizations triple, while the other end of the state is seeing fewer people with serious COVID come into emergency rooms.
Click on the map below to open it in a new window for a closer look.
Iowa counties that saw a substantial increase in COVID hospitalizations include:
- Adair
- Cerro Gordo
- Clarke
- Clay
- Dallas
- Decatur
- Dickinson
- Franklin
- Hancock
- Jasper
- Kossuth
- Lyon
- Madison
- Marion
- Muscatine
- Palo Alto
- Polk
- Ringgold
- Scott
- Union
- Warren
- Winnebago
- Worth
Jill Rosenthal, director of public health policy at the Center for American Progress, told The Hill that summer surges of COVID-19 may be the new norm. “We have had a summer wave of COVID for the last few summers, and so it’s not surprising to see an increase in COVID right now.”
While winter means more people socialize indoors (known to accelerate the spread of the coronavirus), summer means more people are traveling and socializing overall. Plus, in hot parts of the country, people are more likely to socialize and spend time in the air-conditioned indoors than they are to be outside.
The omicron variant still appears to be dominant. According to the CDC, omicron’s many subtypes make up 99.9% of cases.
