COVID-19 Statistics in the US 2026 | Cases, Deaths & Key Facts

COVID-19 in America 2026

COVID-19 continues to circulate across the United States in 2026, more than six years after the virus first emerged, and it remains a measurable part of the nation’s respiratory illness landscape. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), national surveillance through the summer of 2026 shows that infections are growing or likely growing in 37 states, hospital admissions are ticking upward after a period of decline, and a new subvariant known as “Nimbus” (NB.1.8.1) has become the dominant circulating strain nationwide. While the disease no longer produces the mass hospitalizations and lockdowns of 2020 and 2021, federal health agencies including the CDC, the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS), and the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)-supported wastewater network continue to track cases, deaths, hospitalizations, and variant activity on a weekly basis.

This report compiles the most current, government-verified COVID-19 statistics in the US 2026, drawing exclusively from federal public health sources such as the CDC’s National Vital Statistics System (NVSS), the COVID-19 Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET), the National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS), and the Household Pulse Survey run jointly by the Census Bureau and NCHS. Readers will find verified figures on weekly deaths, hospital admissions, emergency department visits, variant proportions, vaccination coverage, and Long COVID prevalence, each explained in plain language so that families, researchers, journalists, and public health professionals can understand exactly where the pandemic-turned-endemic disease stands today.

Interesting COVID-19 Facts in the US 2026

Nimbus (NB.1.8.1) share of sequenced cases ██████████████████████████████ 43%
States with growing infections (of 50)     ███████████████████████████ 37%
Adults 18+ vaccinated (2025-26 season)     ██████████████ 17.5%
Children vaccinated (2025-26 season)       █████████ 9.7%
Adults currently living with Long COVID    █████ 5.3%

Source: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS)

As the table above show, COVID-19 has not disappeared from American life in 2026 — it has simply settled into a more predictable, wave-based pattern. The Nimbus variant’s 43% share of sequenced specimens signals that a single lineage now dominates community transmission, replacing the more fragmented mix of subvariants seen in prior years. Meanwhile, the fact that 37 states show growing epidemic trends, compared with zero states declining as of July 22, 2026, confirms that a genuine summer wave is underway rather than a localized blip.

These interesting facts also reveal how vaccination coverage has plateaued at relatively low levels, with only 17.5% of adults and 9.7% of children having received the updated 2025–26 vaccine by early 2026. At the same time, Long COVID remains a substantial public health burden, with roughly 17 million adults currently reporting symptoms according to the CDC Household Pulse Survey. Together, these numbers paint a picture of a virus that is manageable but still actively monitored by federal agencies throughout 2026.

COVID-19 Variant Statistics in the US 2026

NB.1.8.1 "Nimbus"        ████████████████████████████████████████ 43%
All other lineages       ████████████████████████████████████     57%

Source: CDC Genomic Surveillance, COVID Data Tracker: Variant Proportions

The Nimbus (NB.1.8.1) variant overtook all competing lineages to become the dominant strain circulating in the United States by mid-2026, representing 43% of all sequenced COVID-19 cases in the two-week period ending late June. This shift matters because a single dominant variant tends to drive more uniform transmission patterns nationwide, and it also raises questions about how well the 2025–26 updated vaccine, formulated against the LP.8.1 strain, protects against this newer lineage. States such as Louisiana and South Carolina, which historically report higher rates of chronic disease, have been flagged for elevated COVID-19 activity tied to Nimbus’s spread.

Genomic surveillance data also show that CDC has not yet published a detailed state-by-state variant breakdown due to sequencing coverage limitations, meaning the true regional distribution of Nimbus may be even broader than currently confirmed. Health officials are actively evaluating whether the fall 2026 vaccine cycle will require a Nimbus-specific update, though no formal announcement had been made as of the most recent CDC review. This uncertainty underscores why continuous variant statistics in the US 2026 remain essential for both healthcare providers and the general public planning for potential fall and winter increases.

COVID-19 Hospitalization Statistics in the US 2026

Admissions, week ending July 18, 2026     ████████████████████████████ 1,200
Admissions, forecast week ending Aug 1    ██████████████████████████████████ 1,600
ED visits, week ending July 18, 2026      ██ 0.17%
ED visits, forecast week ending Aug 1     ███ 0.23%

Source: CDC Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA), COVID-NET Surveillance

Hospitalization data offer one of the clearest windows into how seriously COVID-19 is affecting Americans in 2026. For the week ending July 18, 2026, the CDC’s ensemble forecasting model recorded roughly 1,200 new laboratory-confirmed hospital admissions, and it projects this number will climb to approximately 1,600 admissions by the week ending August 1, 2026. This projected increase aligns with the broader trend of rising emergency department (ED) visit percentages, which grew from 0.17% to a forecasted 0.23% of all ED visits over the same period, since ED visits typically precede hospital admissions by one to two weeks.

Despite this uptick, the overall national trajectory recorded by COVID-NET, part of the Respiratory Virus Hospitalization Surveillance Network (RESP-NET), still shows a longer-term decline in COVID-19-associated hospitalizations compared to earlier pandemic years. However, CDC’s 2026 Summer Outlook cautions that a larger-than-expected increase remains possible, particularly if an immune-evasive variant becomes more widespread. This combination of a historically declining baseline with a live, monitored uptick is exactly why hospitalization statistics in the US 2026 are updated and forecast on a rolling weekly basis by federal epidemiologists.

COVID-19 Death Statistics in the US 2026

Deaths coded to U07.1 as underlying cause (recent years)   ██████████████████████████████████ 86%
Deaths coded as underlying cause, 2023                     ██████████████████████████         66%
Deaths coded as underlying cause, 2020                     ████████████████████████████████████ 91%

Source: NCHS Provisional COVID-19 Mortality Surveillance, National Vital Statistics System

Death statistics for COVID-19 are compiled by the NCHS through the National Vital Statistics System, which codes fatalities using the ICD-10 code U07.1 whenever COVID-19 is listed as a confirmed, probable, or presumed contributing cause on a death certificate. In the most recent data, COVID-19 was recorded as the underlying cause of death in 86% of these coded fatalities, a proportion that has shifted over time — falling from 91% in 2020 to roughly 66% in 2023 — as the disease increasingly appears as a contributing factor alongside other chronic conditions rather than the primary cause.

Because death certificate processing can take several weeks, the NCHS notes that provisional COVID-19 death counts are typically only 65% complete within two weeks, rising to 85% complete within four weeks, and reaching at least 94% complete within eight weeks of when a death actually occurred. This built-in reporting lag means the most recent weeks of any given mortality report will always undercount true fatalities until later revisions catch up. Understanding this delay is essential for accurately interpreting COVID-19 death statistics in the US 2026, since raw weekly figures should never be read as final without accounting for subsequent data completeness.

COVID-19 Vaccination Statistics in the US 2026

Adults 18+ vaccinated, 2025-26 season        ██████████████████ 17.5%
Children 6mo-17yrs vaccinated                ██████████ 9.7%
Pregnant women vaccinated                    ███████████ 11.1%

Source: CDC COVIDVaxView, Weekly Vaccination Dashboard

Vaccination statistics for the 2025–26 respiratory virus season show relatively modest uptake of the updated COVID-19 vaccine across the U.S. population. By February 22, 2026, only 17.5% of adults 18 and older had received the season’s updated shot, while pediatric coverage was even lower, with just 9.7% of children ages six months to seventeen years reported as up to date by May 9, 2026. Coverage among pregnant women stood at 11.1%, though this figure masked significant disparities: non-Hispanic Asian women reached 17.9% coverage, more than triple the 5.1% rate recorded among non-Hispanic Black women.

These figures are gathered through complementary federal survey systems — the National Immunization Survey–Fall Respiratory Virus Module for the general adult population, the National Immunization Survey–Flu (NIS-Flu) for children based on parental report, and the Vaccine Safety Datalink, which draws on electronic health records from ten integrated health systems, for pregnant women. The consistent gap between overall population coverage and specific demographic subgroups highlights ongoing challenges in vaccine access and awareness, making these vaccination statistics in the US 2026 a critical benchmark for public health outreach planning heading into the fall 2026 immunization season. Readers interested in how these figures compare with broader immunization attitudes can review vaccine hesitancy statistics in the US for additional context on why uptake remains limited.

COVID-19 Epidemic Trend Statistics in the US 2026

States growing or likely growing      ██████████████████████████████████ 37
States not changing                   ███████████ 11
States declining or likely declining  0

Source: CDC Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics (CFA), Current Epidemic Trends

The epidemic trend statistics compiled by CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics provide one of the most direct measures of how COVID-19 is spreading across the country in real time. As of July 22, 2026, the estimated reproductive number, or Rt, indicates that infections are growing or likely growing in 37 states, with zero states showing a declining trend and only 11 states holding steady. This is a striking shift from the more stable patterns seen earlier in the year and reflects the emergence of the Nimbus variant combined with seasonal summer travel and indoor gathering patterns.

CDC’s 2026 Summer Outlook specifically identified the South and West as the regions most likely to experience early summer COVID-19 increases, based on the fact that these areas did not see substantial winter activity and therefore carry lower recent population immunity. Wastewater surveillance data, updated weekly, has corroborated this regional pattern, showing rising viral signal concentrations in exactly the areas the models predicted. For readers tracking related respiratory illness trends, our companion article on new COVID variant statistics in the US breaks down how emerging lineages are influencing these state-by-state growth patterns.

Long COVID Statistics in the US 2026

Adults who ever had Long COVID        ███████████ 30% (of those who had COVID)
Adults currently living with it       ███ 5.3%–6.7%
Adults with activity limitations      ████████████████████████████ 79% (of those with Long COVID)

Source: CDC/NCHS Household Pulse Survey, Long COVID Module

Long COVID, medically referred to as post-acute sequelae of SARS-CoV-2 (PASC), continues to affect a substantial share of the American population well into 2026. The CDC’s Household Pulse Survey, run jointly with the Census Bureau and NCHS, estimates that between 5.3% and 6.7% of U.S. adults currently experience Long COVID symptoms, translating to roughly 17 million adults nationwide. Among adults who report ever having had COVID-19, close to 3 in 10 say they experienced Long COVID at some point, though the share currently affected is smaller, reflecting gradual recovery among many patients over time.

The impact of Long COVID extends well beyond simple symptom counts: 79% of adults currently living with the condition report some degree of activity limitation as a direct result. Comparatively, this prevalence places Long COVID in the same range as other major chronic conditions such as cancer, which affected an estimated 17 million Americans in 2020. These figures make clear why Long COVID statistics in the US 2026 remain a central focus for federal researchers, and readers can explore a full breakdown of symptoms and demographic patterns in our dedicated article on Long COVID statistics in the US.

COVID-19 Testing and Wastewater Surveillance in the US 2026

Wastewater update frequency         Weekly (every Friday)
Respiratory illness activity level, July 24, 2026    Low, but rising in South/West
COVID-19 activity nationally        Low and stable, early signs of increase

Source: CDC National Wastewater Surveillance System (NWSS), Respiratory Illnesses Data Channel

Wastewater surveillance has become one of the most valuable early-warning tools for tracking COVID-19 activity across the United States in 2026, since it can detect the virus circulating in a community — including in people without symptoms — before clinical testing volumes rise. The CDC’s National Wastewater Surveillance System updates its data every Friday, and as of July 24, 2026, national respiratory illness activity remained very low overall, though COVID-19 specifically was described as low and stable with early signs of increase, particularly in the West and South regions of the country.

This wastewater-based approach works in tandem with clinical indicators like ED visit percentages and hospital admission counts to give public health officials a fuller picture of disease spread, since reported case counts alone are no longer considered a reliable national metric due to the decline in routine clinical COVID-19 testing. By cross-referencing wastewater viral activity levels (WVALs) with hospitalization and mortality data, the CDC can identify emerging trends, such as the current Nimbus-driven summer wave, weeks before they would otherwise appear in traditional surveillance reports, making this dataset indispensable to understanding COVID-19 statistics in the US 2026 in near real time.

COVID-19 Demographic and Risk Group Statistics in the US 2026

Non-Hispanic Asian pregnant women vaccinated    █████████████████ 17.9%
Non-Hispanic Black pregnant women vaccinated    █████ 5.1%

Source: CDC COVID-NET, NCHS COVID-19 Provisional Counts – Health Disparities

Federal COVID-19 surveillance in 2026 continues to track outcomes across demographic and risk groups, recognizing that the disease’s impact is not distributed evenly across the population. Vaccination disparities remain especially notable among pregnant women, where coverage ranges from a high of 17.9% among non-Hispanic Asian women down to just 5.1% among non-Hispanic Black women — a gap of nearly 13 percentage points that public health researchers continue to study. States such as Louisiana and South Carolina, both of which carry historically higher rates of chronic conditions like obesity, diabetes, and cardiovascular disease, have also been flagged among the areas experiencing elevated Nimbus variant activity.

The CDC’s COVID-NET hospitalization network and the NCHS Health Disparities reporting series continue to break down outcomes by age group, sex, and race and ethnicity, providing the detailed data needed to target public health interventions where they are most needed. These demographic statistics reinforce a consistent pattern seen throughout the pandemic: underlying health conditions and unequal vaccine access remain two of the strongest predictors of who experiences more severe COVID-19 outcomes in 2026, even as the disease overall has become less acute for the general population.

Frequently Verified COVID-19 Data Sources in the US 2026

Source: Compiled from CDC.gov and NCHS.gov official data releases

Every figure presented in this report on COVID-19 statistics in the US 2026 traces back to one of these federal reporting systems, each of which publishes updated numbers on a weekly, biweekly, or monthly cadence depending on the dataset. The CDC’s Center for Forecasting and Outbreak Analytics leads on epidemic modeling and variant tracking, while the NCHS independently verifies death data through the National Vital Statistics System, ensuring that mortality figures rely on actual death certificates rather than estimates alone.

This layered verification process — combining clinical surveillance, wastewater science, vaccination registries, and household survey data — is what allows public health officials, journalists, and researchers to trust the accuracy of COVID-19 numbers reported throughout 2026. As the Nimbus variant continues circulating and 37 states show growing transmission trends, these federal data sources will remain the most reliable way to track how the disease evolves through the remainder of the year.

Disclaimer: This research report is compiled from publicly available sources. While reasonable efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, no representation or warranty, express or implied, is given as to the completeness or reliability of the information. We accept no liability for any errors, omissions, losses, or damages of any kind arising from the use of this report.

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