COVID surveillance

People walk past a COVID testing site on May 17 in New York City. New York's health commissioner, Dr. Ashwin Vasan, has moved from a "medium" COVID-19 alert level to a "high" alert level in all the five boroughs following a surge in cases.

National
Health & Safety

The real COVID surge is (much) bigger than it looks. But don't panic

8:04pm May 27, 2022

by Selena Simmons-Duffin

Thanks to at-home testing, official reports are missing a lot of the COVID cases circulating now. Is the U.S. in the midst of an invisible surge? Here's how to assess the situation where you live.

A registered nurse stirs a nasal swab in testing solution after administering a COVID-19 test in Los Angeles, Calif. Increased testing could help in efforts to detect and track new variants like omicron.

National
Health & Safety

As U.S. races to detect and track omicron, patchwork surveillance makes that tough

6:42pm November 30, 2021

What's the U.S. doing to watch out for the omicron variant? Here's the work underway and the challenges that experts say may slow down the country's efforts.