🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
The highest rates of people testing positive for COVID-19 are in Texas and the states that surround it, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
About 15 percent of COVID tests in the U.S. were positive in the week ending August 26, the most recent week of federal data, up 1.4 percent from the previous week.
Five states—Texas, Oklahoma, New Mexico, Louisiana and Arkansas—had the highest test positivity at 20.8 percent, according to CDC data. In Texas, a ban on mask mandates went into effect earlier in September.
Those states were followed by Nevada, Hawaii, California, and Arizona, which all had 16.1 percent of tests come back positive that week.
At the other end of the spectrum, New York, New Jersey, the Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico have the lowest test positivity at about 9.6 percent.
Newsweek has contacted the CDC for comment via email.
It comes as COVID hospitalizations have been rising amid the recent emergence of two new variants: EG.5 and BA.2.86. There were more than 17,000 admissions in the week ending August 26, an increase of 15.7 percent from the previous week.
Still, COVID hospitalizations are considered low in about 93 percent of the country, according to the CDC. The percentage of U.S. deaths due to COVID in the week ending August 26 was 2 percent.
The numbers show that although the national emergency and federal mask mandates have ended—though some places have temporarily brought back masking requirements in response to positive cases—the virus is still spreading.
A spokesperson for the CDC told Newsweek last week that it currently has no intention of calling for the return of mask mandates, but didn't deny that this might change if cases of new variants were to rise significantly.
President Joe Biden was seen wearing a mask for the first time in months on Tuesday, a day after First Lady Jill Biden tested positive for COVID.
Biden donned a mask during a ceremony honoring Captain Larry Taylor, an 81-year-old Vietnam veteran, but then quickly took it off to deliver remarks.
Earlier on Tuesday, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had said Biden, who had tested negative for the virus earlier in the day, would mask indoors but might remove it when standing at a distance from others.
However, Biden was seen interacting closely with Taylor and shaking his hand while not wearing a mask.
Jean-Pierre defended Biden's actions during a press briefing on Wednesday, saying that the president left the ceremony early to limit his contact with those at the event.
She said Biden had tested negative for the virus on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday, and did not have any symptoms.
The CDC guidelines recommend "a combination of masking, testing, and monitoring for symptoms," Jean-Pierre said. "The president is doing all that he can, of course, in consultation with his physician."
The CDC advises that those who are exposed to the coronavirus should wear a high-quality mask around others in their home or indoors in public, in addition to testing and monitoring for symptoms, for 10 days.
About the writer
Khaleda Rahman is Newsweek's National Correspondent based in London, UK. Her focus is reporting on education and national news. Khaleda ... Read more