America’s COVID future has arrived

The U.S. and COVID-19 are settling into a long, but hopefully manageable future together.

The big picture: The worst of the pandemic is likely behind us, but the virus is here to stay. We’re entering a new phase — one in which the country’s overall experience with this virus will be less like having a heart attack, and more like managing a lifelong chronic condition.

Experts have been saying for a long time that there’s almost no chance COVID-19 would disappear. Rather, they’ve been expecting it to become endemic — meaning it will stick around, possibly forever, but at more predictable, manageable levels.

That transition appears to be happening right now.

By the numbers: The U.S. is averaging about 74,000 new infections per day. That is, unfortunately, a 4% increase over the past two weeks.

The CDC defines a “low” rate of COVID transmission, measured at the county level, as an average of fewer than 10 new cases per 100,000 people per day.