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COVID-19

COVID-19 information, resources, and data

Future of CDC COVID-19 Data

Moving Forward with COVID-19 Data

To prepare for the end of the COVID-19 public health emergency declaration on May 11, 2023, CDC is transitioning to sustainable national COVID-19 surveillance. CDC will continue to use all available resources to track COVID-19 and monitor its long-term effect on the United States and globally. Variant data is a good example of sustainable surveillance.

The virus that causes COVID-19 is constantly changing, with new lineages emerging and then spreading or disappearing. XBB.1.5 became the dominant lineage over the past few months, but it is now starting to wane as other lineages rise. Newer lineages like XBB.1.9.2 and XBB.1.16, both close relatives of XBB.1.5, are starting to rise and could displace XBB.1.5. At this time, the best ways to protect yourself and others from COVID-19 remain the same, regardless of which lineage causes infection. CDC will keep a close watch on these changes and continue to communicate about their potential impact.

Most data activities on COVID Data Tracker won’t be affected by the end of the public health emergency. In the next and final Weekly Review on May 12, we’ll give a more comprehensive summary of the updates to COVID Data Tracker and where you’ll be able to find the COVID-19 data you need.

 
Series of Weekly Review issues coinciding with ending of the Public Health Emergency (PHE) on May 11, 2023
Data Modernization Initiative (DMI)

The Data Modernization Initiative (DMI) is our solution to the challenges public health has faced for too long, which have been highlighted during the pandemic. Through the initiative, CDC is creating a world in which data can move faster than disease. Our ultimate goal is to get better, faster, actionable data for decision-making at all levels of public health.

The pandemic underscored the importance of good data across the nation’s public health system. CDC is working to advance eight core goals for public health surveillance of COVID-19:

  • Monitor trends and intensity of SARS-CoV-2 transmission, identify outbreaks, and provide data to initiate case and contact investigations
  • Understand disease severity and the spectrum of illness
  • Monitor and track vaccine distribution, uptake, and effectiveness
  • Describe risk factors for severe disease and transmission
  • Monitor for variants
  • Assess impact on healthcare systems
  • Estimate disease burden, and forecast trends, impact, and clinical and public health needs
  • Monitor impact of disease and interventions on health equity

DMI’s vision is to create one public health community that can engage robustly with healthcare, communicate meaningfully with the public, improve health equity, and have the means to protect and promote health. The gains we’ve made during the pandemic are now building a bridge to a new kind of surveillance and better approaches to public health data.

What’s New:
  • The Vaccine Effectiveness page was updated to highlight vaccine effectiveness studies published from October 2022 to February 2023.
  • The new Links to Archived Data and Visualizations page is now live to the public. This new page lists all pages archived from COVID Data Tracker and where the archived information can be found.
CDC COVID Data Tracker Weekly Review
Weekly Review, Signing Off | May 12, 2023

Yesterday, May 11, 2023, marked the end of the federal COVID-19 public health emergency (PHE) declaration. This doesn’t mean that COVID-19 is over, but the end of the PHE did initiate a cascade of updates to COVID-19 data collection, reporting, and surveillance. Some surveillance metrics will remain the same, but some will change in terms of reporting frequency, data sources, or availability.

The latest updates to CDC’s COVID Data Tracker reflect these changes. The homepage has a new look, and there are also new landing pages for hospitalizations, emergency department (ED) visits, and death data, as well as visualizations of trends and maps. Several pages have also been retired, but COVID Data Tracker has a page with links to archived data and visualizations.

These are the most notable changes to COVID Data Tracker:

  • Hospital admission rates and the percentage of COVID-19 deaths among all deaths are now the primary surveillance metrics.
  • COVID-19 hospital admission levels replace COVID-19 Community Levels (CCLs) as the main indicator of county trends. COVID-19 hospital admission levels are comparable with CCLs.
  • Provisional death certificate data from the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS) will become the primary source for mortality surveillance, replacing aggregate death counts.
  • Aggregate case and death count reporting has been discontinued.
  • ED visit data will serve as an early indicator of COVID-19 activity.
  • County-level COVID-19 Electronic Laboratory Reporting data on test positivity will no longer be posted because national reporting of negative laboratory results is no longer required.
  • The National Respiratory and Enteric Virus Surveillance System (NREVSS), a voluntary reporting network of more than 450 laboratories, will be the new primary source for regional test positivity data and another early indicator.

Please see two new MMWR reports published May 5, 2023—COVID-19 Surveillance After Expiration of the Public Health Emergency Declaration and Correlations and Timeliness of COVID-19 Surveillance Data Sources and Indicators—for more details about the changes.

The United States has mobilized and sustained a historic response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The past three years have been highly challenging in many ways, but together we have made significant progress to reduce the impact COVID-19 has on the health of people and our communities.

CDC will continue to report and monitor valuable data, like genomic surveillance; wastewater surveillance; vaccination coverage, safety, and effectiveness; and hospital-related outcomes, from sentinel surveillance platforms like COVID-NET. These data will help inform individual and community public health actions to protect those at highest risk of severe COVID-19, such as older adults and people with underlying conditions. People with weakened immune systems should consider taking additional prevention measures, developing a COVID-19 Personal Plan to protect themselves from severe COVID-19, and speaking to their healthcare providers about early antiviral treatment options to prevent severe disease, hospitalization, and death. And everyone, high-risk or not, should stay up to date with COVID-19 vaccines.

In the future, CDC will move toward integrating COVID-19 monitoring within a sustainable respiratory viruses surveillance strategy. CDC displays data for diagnosed or laboratory-confirmed COVID-19, flu, and respiratory syncytial virus (RSV) on the National Syndromic Surveillance Program dashboard (for ED visits) and the RESP-NET dashboard (hospitalizations).

What’s New:

CDC Archived Data & Visualizations

Links to Data and Visualizations that have been Archived and No Longer Display on CDC COVID Data Tracker 

Archival Date Archived Page Name Information
9/30/2021 Vaccinations in Long-Term Care Facilities

Historical data that reflect the Federal Pharmacy Partnership for Long-Term Care (LTC) Program are available on data.cdc.gov.
7/28/2022 COVID-19 Among Pregnant People

Information about findings from these data and about CDC's ongoing data collection efforts to better understand the impact of COVID-19 during pregnancy can be found here.
10/13/2022 Vaccination and Case Trends

Archived data are available at Archive: COVID-19 Vaccination and Case Trends by Age Group, United States | Data | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov).
11/3/2022 Vaccination Demographics

Archived data are available at Archive: COVID-19 Vaccination Demographic Trends by Report Date, National | Data | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (cdc.gov).
11/17/2022 Birth and Infant Outcomes

This page has been redirected to https://www.cdc.gov/ncbddd/set-net/articles.html
3/2/2023 Correctional Facilities

Archived data are available at UCLA Law COVID Behind Bars Data Project website and GitHub
3/16/2023 State-Issued Prevention Measures at the State-Level

Visualizations are archived on Tableau Public at the following links: StateMap, StateOverlay, StateCompare
3/16/2023 State-Issued Prevention Measures at the County-Level

Visualizations are archived on Tableau Public at the following links: CountyMap, CountyOverlay.
5/11/2023 Cases and Deaths by Urban/Rural Status and Social Factor

Archived data are available at Trends in COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in the United States, by County-level Population Factors. Data to classify counties based on demographic factors are available at the following locations: Social Vulnerability Index, 2013 National Center for Health Statistics Urban-Rural Classification Scheme for Counties, COVID-19 Community Vulnerability Index (CCVI) scores from Surgo Ventures, and distribution by age, race/ethnicity, household size, poverty level, and health insurance status from American Community Survey.
5/11/2023 Hospitalizations by Vaccination Status - COVID-NET

Archived data are available at Rates of Laboratory-Confirmed COVID-19 Hospitalizations by Vaccination Status from the COVID-NET Surveillance System.
5/11/2023 Pandemic Vulnerability Index

Visit NIEHS COVID-19 Pandemic Vulnerability Index to access the PVI archived dashboard.
5/11/2023 Estimates of Weighted Proportions of Variants by Jurisdiction

Archived data are available at Tableau Public.
5/11/2023 Forecasting

Archived data are available at CDC COVID-19 Cases and Deaths Ensemble Forecast Archive.
5/11/2023 Compare State and Regional Trends

Archived data are available at Weekly United States COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by State.
5/11/2023 Trends in Number of COVID-19 Cases and Deaths in the US Reported to CDC, by State/Territory

Test positivity data from COVID-19 Electronic Laboratory Reporting (CELR) that was previously posted has been archived at COVID-19 Diagnostic Laboratory Testing (PCR Testing) Time Series. Aggregate Case and Death data have been archived at Weekly United States COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by State.
5/11/2023 United States COVID-19 Cases, Deaths, and Laboratory Testing (NAATs) by State, Territory, and Jurisdiction

Test positivity data from COVID-19 Electronic Laboratory Reporting (CELR) that was previously posted has been archived at COVID-19 Diagnostic Laboratory Testing (PCR Testing) Time Series. Aggregate Case and Death data have been archived at Weekly United States COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by State.
5/11/2023 COVID-19 Integrated County View (COVID-19 Community Levels, Level of Community Transmission, and County Level Data Sources)

COVID-19 Community Levels and hospital data at the county-level are archived at United States COVID-19 Community Levels by County. COVID-19 Community Transmission Levels and CELR test positivity at the county-level are archived at Weekly COVID-19 County Level of Community Transmission as Originally Posted and Weekly COVID-19 County Level of Community Transmission Historical Changes. COVID-19 County Level Data Sources are noted at United States COVID-19 County Level Data Sources. Weekly county-level case and death data that was previously posted has been archived at Weekly United States COVID-19 Cases and Deaths by County - ARCHIVED.