The CDC will stop reporting daily COVID cases and deaths in favor of weekly surveillance
The U.S. may have reached another milestone in the pandemic, as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says it will stop reporting daily COVID-19 cases and deaths in favor of weekly surveillance, similar to the flu.
Experts say the shift to weekly reporting is largely a byproduct of decades of underfunding public health systems, and worry pulling resources away from COVID-19 surveillance could delay pandemic efforts and send the wrong message to the public.
“It could definitely be interpreted as we’re changing the way we interact with this pandemic,” said Jodie Guest, professor and vice chair of the department of epidemiology at Emory University’s Rollins School of Public Health. “But this is more about workforce issues and the burden on states to routinely update data: They’re underfunded and understaffed.”