US COVID-19 indicators continue to slowly fall, but multiple new Omicron lineages are steadily cutting into the dominance of BA.5, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today in its latest update.

In global developments, cases continue a steady rise in Europe, with the biggest impact on seniors.

Booster uptake sluggish amid falling cases

In a weekly review, the CDC today said the 7-day average for new daily COVID cases decreased 11.9% as of Oct 12 when compared to the previous week, with the country averaging 38,494 cases a day.

The 7-day average for new COVID hospitalizations decreased 4.4% over the same period. Deaths also declined, with the 7-day average for new daily COVID deaths down 8.5%. The country is now averaging 328 COVID deaths a day.

The percentage of counties with high community COVID levels declined slightly, and the number with medium community levels showed a moderate decrease, while counties with low community levels increased moderately.

More than 14.78 million Americans have received their updated bivalent booster, but the CDC emphasized that nearly half of the eligible population haven't received any booster doses. In a related development, Pfizer and BioNTech yesterday announced phase 2/3 trial data that show that the new booster substantially increases BA.4/BA.5 neutralizing antibody response above prebooster levels, based on blood samples taken 7 days after vaccination.

Among the other metrics that the CDC tracks, the percentage of polymerase chain reaction (PCR) tests that were positive for COVID increased compared to the previous week, with the average 7-day positivity rate at 8.8%. And wastewater surveillance suggests that 35% of the country is reporting moderate to high SARS-CoV-2 levels.