With daily cases, hospitalizations and deaths on the rise, the coronavirus pandemic is accelerating in the United States, says Covid Tracking Project.
More Americans are hospitalized with COVID-19 today than at any previous point in the pandemic, a grim milestone indicating that the coronavirus is not slowing down in the United States.
On July 22, 59,628 people in the United States were in the hospital after testing positive for the new coronavirus, according to the Covid Tracking Project at The Atlantic. That total exceeded the previous daily maximum of 59,539 hospitalized with COVID-19 on April 15, when New York City was the epicenter of the outbreak in the United States.
These changes occur amid the increase in new patients with the virus.
The hospitalization data is a mess because of the HHS changeover and must be taken with a grain of salt. We expect the artificial drops in hospital numbers to be temporary. See the longer thread and blog post here. https://t.co/ViHYBOVNXr
– The COVID Tracking Project (@ COVID19Tracking) July 23, 2020
A week after cases started to increase in mid-June, hospitalizations also began to increase.
On June 20, there were approximately 28,000 people hospitalized with COVID-19. A month later, that number had more than doubled 58,000 hospitalized patients.
If you look at new cases per million people, the South’s numbers stand out, but the problems appear to be spreading up the Mississippi River. pic.twitter.com/WhbHgbHzg9
– The COVID Tracking Project (@ COVID19Tracking) July 23, 2020
Now, the number of hospitalized patients is approaching the peak that was reached in mid-April, during the height of the coronavirus outbreak in the Northeast.
New York and New Jersey they only represented 45% of hospitalizations at that time.
This time, Texas, Florida, and California are home to about half the total number of COVID-19 patients.
While some large urban hospitals may be prepared to handle the current increase, Smaller rural hospitals do not have access to the same level of resources to handle the large influx of patients.
In South Texas, small hospitals are flooded with seriously ill COVID-19 patients, and at least one is saturated to the point of making plans to reject patients with little prospect of survival.
Deaths continue to rise
Three weeks ago, the Covid Tracking Project raised the alarm about the rapidly increasing number of cases in critical states, such as Arizona, California, Florida and Texas.
The increase in cases throughout June laid the foundations for the increase in hospitalizations and now, in July, for the sharp increase in deaths.
In these four states, the seven-day average for reported deaths each day has increased from less than 150 in early June to more than 400 now.
That same trend it is beginning to repeat itself in the other southern states.
OK, well, now our daily update is published. States reported more than 70k cases for the 4th time ever. Hospitalizations are near their all-time high (with the previously noted caveats). More than 1,000 deaths were reported for the third day in a row, after 55 days sub-1,000. pic.twitter.com/5kAX6zv9nl
– The COVID Tracking Project (@ COVID19Tracking) July 23, 2020
New cases of COVID-19 per million people in many southern states are approaching the levels found in the northeast in early April.
The tests were much more limited in the spring than they are now, but the increase in cases exceeds the increase in evidence. If these outbreaks continue to grow, they will inevitably lead to more deaths in these states.
More deaths after July?
The COVID Tracking Project is sounding the alarm again, because The increase in deaths in July is occurring in parallel with the continuing high levels of new cases reported.
Clinical delays will continue, as will reporting delays, and if all of these patterns recur, in three weeks we will see an increase in mortality rates caused by the tens of thousands of cases that are being recorded this month.
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