Detection of a new wave of covid in the United States worries experts

As coronavirus infections surge in some parts of the world, experts are keeping an eye on a possible new wave of COVID-19 in the United States and wondering how long it will take to detect it.

Although monitoring has improved in the past two years, experts noted that some recent developments do not bode well.

Here are some reasons:

• While more people are getting rapid COVID-19 tests at home, fewer are getting the baseline tests the government relies on to count cases.
• The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will soon use fewer labs to screen for new variants.
• Health officials are increasingly focusing on hospital admissions, which rise only after the wave hit.
• A wastewater monitoring program remains a patchwork that cannot be counted on to provide the data needed to understand the coming waves.
• White House officials say the government is running out of funds for vaccines, treatments and tests.

“We’re not in an ideal situation,” said Jennifer Nuzzo, a pandemic researcher at Brown University.

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The scientists recognized that the wide availability of vaccines and treatments places the country in a better situation than when the pandemic began, and that monitoring has advanced a great deal.

For example, this week scientists announced a program that tests people arriving from abroad at four US airports for coronavirus. Genetic testing of a sample from December 14 discovered a variant of the coronavirus, the omicron descendant known as BA.2, seven days before any other reported detections in the United States.

There is more good news: For weeks, cases, hospitalizations, and deaths in the United States have been declining, but the same is not happening elsewhere. 

This week, the World Health Organization reported that the number of new coronavirus cases increased for two consecutive weeks worldwide, probably because prevention measures against covid-19 have been withdrawn in several countries and BA.2 spreads. more easily.