Everything COVID looks low-ish. Not gone, not low on an absolute scale, but definitely low on a relative scale. For example, while the lowest number in hospital with COVID-19 that we’ve seen since Omicron hit was ~65 (in the summer of 2023), right now we’re at about 80.
Is this something special to BC, or is everywhere low? Well, we it’s hard to tell about the USA overall because Trump told all the health departments to stop communicating with the outside world. I took a look at a handful of US jurisdictions and other countries, and it looks like COVID-19 levels are low-ish in most places, as best as I could tell. I have no idea why this would be happening, except that we haven’t had a really different new variant in a while.
Charts
From the BC CDC Situation Report:
Comparison vs. Other Influenza-Like-Illnesses, from the Viral Pathogen Characterization page:
Flu A looks like it is near its peak. Flu B is starting its rise (it apparently always shows up later), but it historically has not had as many cases. RSV has definitely peaked; COVID-19 is going down slightly. Entero/rhinoviruses are about 20% lower than the previous week.
In the most recent week with full data (ending 11 January) as reported on 16 Jan 2025, among confirmed cases, there were:
- 29% as many COVID-19 cases as flu cases,
- 44% as many COVID-19 cases as RSV cases,
- about 55% more COVID-19 cases as enterovirus/rhinovirus cases.
- only about 14% as many COVID-19 cases as all the other influenza-like illnesses (influenza, RSV, enterovirus, rhinovirus, adenovirus, human metapneumovirus, parainfluenza, and common-cold coronaviruses) combined.
Wastewater
From Jeff’s wastewater spreadsheet:
