COVIDView Weekly Summary
Updated April 10, 2020
Key Updates for Week 14, ending April 4, 2020
This CDC report provides a weekly summary and interpretation of key indicators that have been adapted to track the COVID-19 pandemic in the United States. While influenza-like-illness (ILI) declined, it is still elevated and laboratory confirmed COVID-19 activity continues to increase as do COVID-19 severity indicators (hospitalizations and deaths).
Virus
Public health, commercial and clinical laboratories are all testing for SARS-CoV-2 and reporting their results. The national percentage of respiratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 is increasing overall and for week 14 is distributed as follows:
- 18.5% at public health laboratories, and
- 7.7% at clinical laboratories.
Since the start of the outbreak, 17.6 % of specimens tested at commercial laboratories have been positive for SARS-CoV-2.
Outpatient and Emergency Department Visits
Two indicators from existing surveillance systems are being monitored to track outpatient or emergency department (ED) visits for potential COVID-19 illness.
- Nationally, the percentages of visits for influenza-like illness (ILI) and COVID-19-like illness (CLI) are elevated compared to what is normally seen at this time but decreased compared to last week.
Recent changes in health care seeking behavior are likely impacting both networks, making it difficult to draw further conclusions at this time. Tracking these systems moving forward will give additional insight into illness related to COVID-19.
Severe Disease
Cumulative COVID-19-associated hospitalization rates since March 1, 2020, will be updated weekly. The overall cumulative hospitalization rate is 12.3 per 100,000, with the highest rates in persons 65 years and older (38.7 per 100,000) and 50-64 years (20.7 per 100,000).
Based on death certificate data, the percentage of deaths attributed to COVID-19 increased from 4.0% during week 13 to 6.9% during week 14. The percentage of deaths due to pneumonia (excluding COVID-19 or influenza) decreased from 7.5% during week 13 to 7.2% during week 14.
All data are preliminary and may change as more reports are received.
A description of the surveillance systems summarized in COVIDView, including methodology and detailed descriptions of each data component, is available on the surveillance methods page.
Key Points
- CDC is modifying existing surveillance systems, many used to track influenza and other respiratory viruses annually, to track COVID-19.
- Nationally, the percentage of laboratory specimens testing positive for SARS-CoV-2 continued to increase.
- Visits to outpatient providers and emergency departments (EDs) for illnesses with symptoms consistent with COVID-19 are elevated compared to what is normally seen at this time of year but decreased compared to levels reported last week. At this time, there is little influenza virus circulation so the elevated proportion of people presenting with these symptoms is likely due to COVID-19, but may be tempered by a number of factors including less ILI overall because of widespread adoption of social distancing efforts as well as changes in healthcare seeking practices.
- The overall cumulative COVID-19 associated hospitalization rate is 12.3 per 100,000, with the highest rates in persons 65 years and older (38.7 per 100,000) and 50-64 years (20.7 per 100,000). Hospitalization rates for COVID-19 in older people are higher than what is typically seen early in a flu season.
- Based on death certificate data, the percentage of deaths attributed to COVID-19 increased from 4.0% during week 13 to 6.9% during week 14. The percentage of deaths due to pneumonia (excluding COVID-19 or influenza) decreased from 7.5% during week 13 to 7.2% during week 14.
The number of specimens tested for SARS-CoV-2 and reported to CDC by public health laboratories and a subset of clinical and commercial laboratories in the United States are summarized below. At this point in the outbreak, all laboratories are performing primary diagnostic functions; therefore, the percentage of specimens testing positive across laboratory types can be used to monitor trends in COVID-19 activity. As the outbreak progresses, it is possible that different types of laboratories will take on different roles, and the data interpretation may need to be modified. The lower percentage of specimens testing positive in the clinical laboratories compared to the public health and commercial laboratories is likely due to the amount of COVID-19 activity in areas with reporting laboratories and a larger proportion of specimens from children.
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