COVID-19 Cases Rise Across 27 States Amid Summer Wave, CDC Data Shows

COVID-19 infections are climbing in more than half of U.S. states as health officials report increasing activity across the Southeast, South and West Coast regions.

Rudy Blalock

Published: 7/28/2025, 11:36:50 PM EDT

COVID-19 Cases Rise Across 27 States Amid Summer Wave, CDC Data Shows — An electron microscope image shows SARS-CoV-2 (round gold objects), which causes COVID-19, emerging from cultured cells. (NIAID via The Epoch Times)

COVID-19 infections are climbing in more than half of U.S. states as health officials report increasing activity across the Southeast, South, and West Coast regions.

According to new data from the CDC, the agency reported on Friday that COVID-19 cases are growing in 10 states and likely increasing in an additional 17 states and Washington, D.C.

The surge comes as overall acute respiratory illness remains at very low levels nationwide.

States experiencing confirmed growth in COVID-19 activity include Arkansas, Hawaii, Illinois, Iowa, Kentucky, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia, according to CDC surveillance data released July 25.

An additional 17 jurisdictions—Alaska, California, Delaware, District of Columbia, Georgia, Indiana, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Mississippi, New Jersey, New York, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, and Wisconsin—are showing likely increases in transmission.

The rising case numbers coincide with the dominance of a new COVID-19 variant that previously drove infections across China earlier this year. The NB.1.8.1 strain now accounts for 43 percent of U.S. cases, making it the country's dominant variant, according to CDC estimates covering June 8 to the 21.

Emergency department visits for COVID-19 are increasing specifically among young children ages 0 to 4, while laboratory test positivity rates are climbing nationally, the agency reported.

However, the agency noted that wastewater monitoring indicates COVID-19 activity levels remain low in most areas.

The NB.1.8.1 variant, nicknamed the "razor throat" or "razor blade throat" variant in media reports, has been identified in at least 21 states, according to data from the Global Initiative on Sharing All Influenza Data.

The World Health Organization has designated the strain as a "variant under monitoring" but considers the global public health risk to be low.

Chinese health officials reported that NB.1.8.1 drove a wave of infections across that country during the spring, with doctors describing symptoms including sharp sore throat, fever, runny nose, vomiting, and diarrhea, according to The Epoch Times.

Chinese physicians at Peking University predicted the variant could become the next dominant global strain.

Despite the COVID-19 increases, other respiratory illnesses remain low. Seasonal influenza activity is low nationwide, while respiratory syncytial virus activity is very low. The CDC noted that RSV hospitalization rates among infants were significantly lower this past season compared to pre-pandemic years, which it attributed to new maternal vaccines and preventive treatments.

"In the first RSV season with widespread availability of RSV prevention products, RSV-associated hospitalization rates among infants were lower than in prepandemic seasons," according to a CDC report released in May.

The new data showed that RSV hospitalization rates were 45 to 52 percent lower in infants younger than 3 months and 28 to 43 percent lower in infants younger than 8 months compared to the 2018 to 2020 seasons.

Two other respiratory infections continue to circulate at higher than usual levels. Mycoplasma pneumoniae, which causes "walking pneumonia," remains elevated in some U.S. regions based on emergency department visits and test positivity. Whooping cough cases, while lower than their November 2024 peak, remain higher than normal compared to pre-pandemic levels.