Public Health Info COVID19 and Respiratory Illness Activity Report for week ending 122323

Attached please find the COVID-19 and Respiratory Illness Activity Report. This report summarizes surveillance information for COVID-19, RSV, and other non-influenza viral respiratory illnesses.

Report Highlights:

• CDC COVID-19 Hospital Admission Levels for the MMWR week ending December 23, 2023 is medium in 11 counties (Atlantic, Burlington, Camden, Cape May, Cumberland, Gloucester, Monmouth, Morris, Ocean, Salem, and Sussex) and low in all other counties.
• The percentage of deaths due to COVID-19 in the past week is a timely measure of mortality trends. For the week ending December 23, 2023, 3.7% of deaths were due to COVID-19 (CDC COVID Data Tracker).
• In the past week, 3.0% of emergency department visits were diagnosed as COVID-19 (CDC COVID Data Tracker).
• In the four weeks leading up to December 16^th, HV.1 accounted for 31.7% of sequenced variants. JN.1 and EG.5 accounted for 18.8% and 10.3% of sequenced variants, respectively.
• For the week ending December 23, 2023, zero non-flu viral respiratory disease outbreaks were reported into the SIC module by K-12 schools, predominantly due to decreased reporting during the winter intercession.
• RSV activity, percent positivity, and the percentage of emergency department visits with a diagnosis of RSV are lower this week when compared to the previous week.

This report can be found on the NJDOH website at https://www.nj.gov/health/cd/statistics/covid/index.shtml.

Please contact the Communicable Disease Service at 609-826-5964 with any questions about the report.