August 21, 2023 – The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported that COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are increasing within the United States.
Last week, 10,320 people were hospitalized for COVID-related reasons, a 14.3% increase from the previous week, the CDC said Friday in its weekly updateThe variety of hospital admissions has increased for six weeks in a row.
The Center for Research and Policy on Infectious Diseases (CIDRAP) on the University of Minnesota found that more counties have moved into the center range for COVID admissions, particularly within the South and Southeast. One county with high admissions is listed: Grant County, Oregon.
Since January 1, 2020, there have been 6.2 million COVID-related hospitalizations.
Bernard Camins, MD, medical director of infection prevention at Mount Sinai Health System, said CBS News that COVID cases increased this summer because people were socializing more.
“I expect the numbers to rise a little bit because there is a lot of activity,” he said.
The variety of COVID-related deaths increased 8.3% last week in comparison with the previous week, the CDC said. This is the second week in a row that the variety of deaths has increased. According to the CDC, 1.3% of deaths last week were attributable to COVID.
Since January 1, 2020, 1.1 million people have died from COVID within the United States.
CIDRAP found that early indicators for COVID have also increased. Emergency room visits increased 19% in comparison with the previous week, with increases within the South and Southeast, in addition to Oregon. The variety of positive tests increased 1.5% last week in comparison with the previous week.
The CDC also updated the proportions of variants on Friday. The updates show that EG.5 stays the predominant variant, increasing from 16.1% to twenty.6% of all U.S. COVID cases over the past two weeks.