XBB.1.5 : 95.2% of Sequenced Cases in the NE U.S., Pediatric Hospitalizations are Increasing

COVID update: Feb 10, 2023

XBB.1.5 continues towards total dominance in the Northeast U.S. and throughout the country. In the Northeast, this may be the first variant to reach over 95% prevalence since the beginning of the pandemic.

In the rest of the U.S., XBB.1.5 makes up nearly 75% of sequenced cases. We can see that it continues to expand and gain in prevalence across the country. The northwest U.S. has the least in the country, but it will likely continue to build unless something else comes into the picture.

Just in case this isn’t clear enough, everyone should absolutely be wearing N-95 masks to reduce the level of exposure to this variant. It evades antibodies from prior infections and even the BA.5 bivalent booster. It has defeated all the available monoclonal antibody treatments, and Paxlovid’s efficacy may be diminished. Paxlovid's availability may quickly come into question. Note that the FDA removed the requirement for a positive test, so if you or a family member has symptoms, contact your doctor right away to see if it is appropriate. It is most effective if taken within the first 5 days of symptoms starting.

---

Percentage of Inpatient Beds Occupied in the United States

This was reported on the HHS website, but as of February 2, 2023, they moved all the reporting over to the CDC data tracker site. They don’t like to make it easy to find this information. They are constantly shifting things around. Having said that, we can see that the number of pediatric inpatient beds in use is increasing. This is most pronounced in the Northeast, as we can see below, where XBB.1.5 cases are most prevalent.

Percentage of Inpatient Beds Occupied in the Northeast U.S. (HHS Region 2)

We can see that in this region, the pediatric hospitalizations are climbing much faster and that translates into more children needing the ICU as we can see in the next graph.

ICU bed utilization in the Northeast U.S.

We can see that in the Northeast U.S., Region 2, the number of pediatric ICU beds being used has increased over the past week. We've zoomed in on the last month to get a better look.

This information is very important for parents and schools to consider when thinking about protecting children from this variant. This is putting children in the hospital, and most of this was largely preventable if we had been warned and taken the appropriate actions. We will end this update here just so it can be shared, but there's a lot more to talk about, so another update will be coming soon. Thanks for reading and please share this information.