*And by D.C., I mean Alexandria, VA, because the publicly available D.C. data don’t seem to be collected anymore.

Another very solid decline for Alexandria, VA:

With a decline from 929 copies/ml to 723 copies/ml, we’re still seven times higher than the mid-June 2023 nadir and at half of the January 2023 season peak. That probably means around 1.0 to 1.5 percent of people are currently infected (though that’s a very rough estimate because we’re not collecting the right prevalence data).

Some additional good news is Anne Arundel County, MD also had a large decline this week, so this doesn’t appear to be a temporary blip at this point. Like I mentioned last week, we appear to be settling into a pattern where we slowly decline to about June, at which point the prevalence will be around ten percent of what it is now, followed by a mid-to-late summer spike–then we get an even larger winter surge.

Anyway, the prevalence is still high, but it’s trending in the right direction. That said, if you’re at a large-ish gathering, it’s definitely a good idea to mask up, not just to protect yourself, but to protect others too. Remember, you’re not the weirdo if you’re still trying to avoid getting (re)infected.