BATON ROUGE — More than five years after the first cases of COVID-19, an average of 350 people still die each week from the virus in the United States.

The CDC says that the number of deaths is decreasing and that it is down significantly from the peak of nearly 26,000 deaths recorded during the week of Jan. 9, 2021.

Public health experts say that COVID is still a threat to high-risk groups due to waning immunity and not enough people accessing treatments like those in the form of antiviral pills.

During the 2024-25 season, only 23 percent of adults received updated vaccines for the virus and CDC data shows that people 75 years and older have the highest rate of COVID deaths at about five per 100,000.

Last week, the Associated Press reported that the Trump administration would be limiting the approval for seasonal COVID shots to seniors and others at high risk for infection.