The CDC shows Covid-19 cases are rising once again

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Covid-19 hospitalizations and deaths have gone up in recent weeks, according to the Centers for Disease Control and prevention.

The CDC's Covid Data Tracker shows that there were 15,067 hospitalizations between August 13 and August 19, which is the most recent data on the CDC's website. That's an 18.85% increase from the prior week. 2% of the people from that group died from the disease, the website shows; a 17.6% increase from the previous week.

Still, El Paso Dr. Ogechika Alozie, the CEO of Sunset West Health, says he does not anticipate a high-impact spike like some of the ones the world saw during the height of the pandemic.

"I haven't seen the manifestations in the hospital, and so it hasn't affected hospital volumes the way it did once upon a time," he said, "I actually believe that the most likely scenario is that because we've had multiple iterations of the virus that's been mutating, that it's not going to affect people the way it used to."

Despite believing a "doomsday scenario" is highly unlikely, Alozie continues to encourage people to get their vaccinations and boosters.

"I think the biggest thing that I can tell people is that if you are at risk; if you're immunocompromised, if you're above the age of 60 when the new vaccine comes out, get it. Give yourself a boost and protect yourself," he said.

The CDC shows 152,508,460 doses of the updated Bivalent vaccine have been distributed as of August 9.