Author: Adrianna Rodriguez, USA TODAY

The CDC report found 30% of the hospitalized kids had no underlying medical conditions, and 19% were admitted to the intensive care unit.

The official death toll for COVID-19 was 5.9 million as of Dec. 31, 2021. But researchers found the actual death toll may be closer to 18.2 million.

Now, in addition to caseloads, the guidance also will consider hospitalizations, current beds occupied by COVID patients and hospital capacity.

Researchers also reported more than 450 babies died during this time, with all of them occurring in unvaccinated pregnant individuals.

Experts expect to see more ‘flurona’ amid rapidly rising flu cases and surging coronavirus cases driven by the highly contagious omicron variant.

Outside the US, IHME models show the world may see approximately 3 billion new infections in the next two months, with a peak of 35 million per day.

The pace of new cases is up 41% nationally compared with a month ago, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data.

Many cold, flu and COVID-19 symptoms overlap: fever, runny nose, sore throat, coughing, and general fatigue.