New HIV diagnoses declined slightly in San Francisco and New York City in 2022, suggesting that things have gotten back on track after disruptions related to COVID-19, but other areas are seeing increases. At the start of the pandemic, there was a steep reduction in HIV testing. This led to fewer diagnoses in 2020, followed by a rise in 2021 as testing caught up.

San Francisco saw a 13% uptick in new HIV diagnoses from 2020 to 2021but resumed its downward trajectory in 2022, with cases falling from 166 to 157. For the first time, Latinos—who make up 16% of the city’s population—accounted for the largest share of new diagnoses (43%). People who inject drugs accounted for 19%, and people experiencing homelessness accounted for 17%; both groups were less likely to achieve viral suppression. Nearly one in five deaths among people with HIV were due to drug overdose.

In New York City, 1,624 people were newly diagnosed in 2022. Here, too, the city saw a dip in new diagnoses in 2020 followed by a rise to 1,645 in 2021; before that, cases had fallen steadily since 2000. Most new cases were among Black (43%) and Latino people (40%). In New York, 8% of deaths in 2021 were due to COVID, making it the third most common non-HIV-related cause of death after cancer and heart disease.

Some areas, however, are not seeing a decline in new HIV cases. In Arizona, there were 975 newly diagnosed cases in 2022—a 19% increase since 2020—and the number was comparable to peak incidence in the late 1980s. The rise coincides with a steep increase in HIV testing in 2022, but Ricardo Fernandez, MD, of the Arizona Department of Health Services, said the 2022 numbers reflect more new infections as well as increased testing.