Updated July 12, 2022 12:08 pm ET Covid-19 circulates widely as BA.5 Omicron subvariant increases risk of reinfections and spikes case numbers, destroying chances for summer respite from pandemic in much of US Levels of Covid-19 are high in a fifth of US counties, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s count based on case and hospital data, a rate that has been rising mostly since mid-April. BA.5 is estimated to account for more than one in three recent US cases that average just over 100,000 per day, according to CDC data. The true number of infections may be about six times higher, some virus experts said, in part because so many people are using home tests that state health agencies are largely not tracking.
