Weekly Viral Respiratory Illness Snapshot
Provides a summary of the key viral respiratory illness findings for COVID-19, influenza, and RSV from the past week and access to additional information and figures.
Reported on Friday, October 20th, 2023.
Note: data summaries are based on CDC subject matter expert interpretation of publicly available findings across multiple data systems, some of which are not included in the data visualizations on these web pages.
The amount of respiratory illness causing people to seek healthcare is low in most areas of the country.
COVID-19 activity continues to decline in many areas of the country but remains the cause of most new respiratory virus hospitalizations and deaths. Sustained increases in RSV activity in the southern U.S. indicate the start of the 2023-2024 RSV season, with the mid-Atlantic and Northeastern regions also now experiencing elevated activity. Influenza activity remains low in most areas of the country, but small increases were reported in some places. Hospital bed occupancy and capacity, including within intensive care units, remain stable nationally. Vaccines are available and can help protect people from the most serious health effects of fall and winter viruses.
- COVID-19 test positivity (percentage of tests conducted that were positive), emergency department visits, and hospitalization rates continue to decrease nationally. A group of Omicron variants (XBB and its sublineages) are the predominant lineages detected in the U.S., with EG.5 being most common. CDC is continuing to monitor it and all other lineages.
- National test positivity, emergency department visits, and hospitalizations for influenza remained low.
- RSV activity is increasing in younger children. Emergency department visits for RSV continue to increase, primarily among younger children. Increases in RSV-associated hospitalizations among infants have been observed in 9 of the 12 U.S. sites with RSV hospitalization monitoring, most notably in the Southeastern U.S.