The U.S. stands at 39 new COVID-19 cases per 100K population per day, unchanged over the past seven days. Deaths are still running 350 a day or so. Hospitalizations appear to have peaked at just over 6000 a day.
Data source for this and other graphs of new case counts: Calculated from The New York Times. (2021). Coronavirus (Covid-19) Data in the United States. Retrieved 7/27/2022, from https://github.com/nytimes/covid-19-data.” The NY Times U.S. tracking page may be found at https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/us/coronavirus-us-cases.html
If I smooth out the worst of the holiday-related data reporting artifacts, you can see that this is now the longest “flat” stretch in the U.S. pandemic. The new case rate has been at more-or-less the same level for three months.
As importantly, there’s nothing new on the horizon. Omicron BA.5 and BA.4 together account for 95% of all new COVID-19 cases in the U.S.
Source: CDC COVID data tracker, accessed 7/27/2022
Recall that the World Health Organization applied the name Omicron to a specific strain of COVID around Thanksgiving 2021. Three quarters of a year later, and nothing new has arisen that merits getting a new Greek letter applied to it.
Source: Greek-alphabets.com
The absence of pi is finally attracting some press coverage. If you skim over that Time article, you’ll see this quote, emphasis mine:
Trevor Bedford, a professor in the vaccine and infectious disease division at Fred Hutchinson Cancer Center in Seattle, says ... The evolutionary jump from Delta to Omicron was large, and the virus may not change that dramatically again for years—if ever, ..."
