The US government may be done with Covid, but recent data shows an alarming number of Americans are still dying from the respiratory disease

The US government may be done with Covid, but recent data shows an alarming number of Americans are still dying from the respiratory disease

Nearly four years into the pandemic, hundreds of Americans are still dying every day from Covid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The virus is responsible for around 1,000 deaths and 15,000 hospitalisations each week, CDC Director Mandy Cohen said during a media briefing on 2 December.

Death rates briefly dipped below 500 per week in July, the lowest rates since the pandemic began, before steadily increasing to as high as 1,400 in September.

The latest CDC data shows emergency doctor visits and hospitalisations spiked by 10 per cent over one week in mid-November, the first major increase in the virus’s spread for several months.

  • athos77@kbin.social
    14·
    11 months ago

    However it’s worth giving perspective that that puts its death toll now at similar to an unusually bad flu year, or about twice as bad as a typical flu year.

    It’s killing as many as in a bad flu year - but we’re not even in the middle of a surge at the moment. The background numbers are twice as deadly as the flu, and they’re going to get worse when winter actually kicks in, more people get sick, and hospitals start getting overloaded again.