Experts warn lack of testing likely "masks" COVID-19 rise in U.S.

LOS ANGELES, April 12 (Xinhua) -- Despite the recent plateau of COVID-19 infections in the United States, experts warned that daily COVID-19 cases are dramatically undercounted due to the lack of testing.

Incomplete data likely "masks" an upward trend, said a report of NBC News.

"I do think we are in the middle of a surge," said Zeke Emanuel, vice provost of global initiatives at the University of Pennsylvania.

The BA.2 Omicron subvariant, which now accounts for over 85 percent of U.S. COVID-19 cases and is thought to be more contagious than the original Omicron variant, is fueling that spread, Emanuel added.

The BA.2 variant represented 85.9 percent of new COVID-19 cases for the week ending April 9, according to data updated Tuesday by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

This data is up from 75.4 percent a week prior, and 65.8 percent two weeks before.

The variant has been steadily rising in proportion since February. It has already become the dominant strain in the United States.

The country is now averaging about 29,000 new COVID-19 cases, 500 deaths and 1,400 hospitalizations every day, according to the latest CDC data.

However, experts said the lack of testing may be the primary reason that COVID-19 cases go "underreported."

At the height of the Omicron wave in January, the United States was administering more than 2 million tests per day. That number dropped to about 320,000 last Friday, according to the most recent data from the CDC.

"The milder symptoms become, the less likely people are to test or show up in official case counts," said David Dowdy, an epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

More people now have access to at-home rapid tests, and most of those test results have not been reported to state health departments or the CDC, experts said.

In fact, some local data already revealed recent COVID-19 spikes. Over the past two weeks, average COVID-19 cases have risen nearly 80 percent in Nebraska, 75 percent in Arizona, 58 percent in New York and 55 percent in Massachusetts, according to the NBC News report.

Wastewater surveillance also suggests that infections are rising in Colorado, Ohio and Washington, among other states, according to the report.

Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, said he believes there will be an uptick in COVID-19 cases over the next few weeks, and that it is likely there could be a surge in the fall.