COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review: Interpretive Summary for April 9, 2021

Details

• Corporate Authors:
  Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.) ; Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (U.S.)
• Description:
  The United States is in the fourth week of an upward trend in COVID-19 cases. The lifting of social distancing and mask mandates in some areas could be contributing to this increase. This increase could also be due to the presence of more contagious variants of SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, which is why it is important to remain vigilant.
  
  Viruses change constantly through mutation, so new variants are expected to occur as the virus spreads. Some variants pose a bigger threat than others. B.1.1.7 is the most common variant circulating in the United States and has been reported in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico. Understanding variants and their spread will help us contain the virus.
  
  CDC recently introduced a classification system to rank the risk of the variants that we are monitoring, similar to the way the weather service ranks hurricanes. The classification system characterizes emerging variants based on their characteristics and the resulting actions and consequences for public health. CDC’s three classification categories include Variants of Interest (VOI), Variants of Concern (VOC) and Variants of High Consequence (VOHC). CDC is currently monitoring five variants of concern in the United States; none of the variants circulating in the United States are classified as variants of high consequence. Many of the variants circulating in the United States do not fall into one of these categories, but CDC continues to monitor them.
  
  
• Subjects:
  Communicable Disease Control Coronavirus Infections/prevention & Control COVID-19 Local Government Pandemics Public Health Public Health Practice
• Series:
  CDC COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review   ; CDC COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review  
• Document Type:
  Text
• Collection(s):
  Stephen B. Thacker CDC Library
• Main Document Checksum:
  urn:sha-512:3a7882519b6940189e2b0cbbdf8dc9240b4f52fe09899e5b075851e5101f74c6889e9eab8c3d76faed39e8a803687cc26579a1d856c78eb6d5ba80e630c9a5cf
• Download URL:
  https://stacks.cdc.gov/view/cdc/104992/cdc_104992_DS1.pdf
• File Type:
  [PDF - 439.52 KB ]