It’s summer 2024, but the COVID-19 pandemic is still hanging around. And while the virus continues to evolve, it’s doing so in more predictable ways. Specifically, the expected summer uptick in infections has arrived: The number of COVID cases is “likely” on the rise in at least 39 states and isn’t dropping anywhere in the United States, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
There are new variants in town, a reformulated vaccine on the horizon and fresh preventive treatments to help protect the most vulnerable people from getting severely ill from COVID. At-risk groups are now the main focus of the U.S. strategy against COVID — instead of the sweeping, one-size-fits-all approach taken in the early days of the pandemic — which means there may be less for an average, healthy person to do. But awareness is the key to staying healthy, experts say, so it’s more important than ever to know just how at-risk you are.