Chances are, at least one person you know—and probably many people you know—have caught COVID-19 this summer. Ever since the “FLiRT” variants emerged this spring, the U.S. has been hit with one new variant after another, leading to a seemingly never-ending wave of cases.
The amount of virus in wastewater has steadily risen since May and levels are now “very high,” in part because there’s yet another new variant on the scene: KP.3.1.1.
KP.3.1.1 was to blame for more than a third of new COVID-19 cases in the U.S. during the two weeks ending August 17, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) data show. And that’s a lot of cases: about one in 34 people in the U.S. currently has COVID-19, independent data scientist and infectious-disease modeler Jay Weiland tells TIME. CDC data also show that lots of people are testing positive and that hospital visits and deaths related to COVID-19 are on the rise.
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