On Monday, Covid-19 was officially declared the deadliest epidemic in American history. It surpassed the death toll from the 1918 flu pandemic.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the seven-day average number of U.S. Covid deaths was 2,031 as at Tuesday. Despite the fact that new infections have slowed, the number of fatalities continues to rise. They are up by 13% and 43% respectively from the beginning of the month, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. March 1 was the last day that the U.S. average daily death toll exceeded 2,000. After a record-setting winter surge of cases and record-high fatalities, the country was slowly coming down.
More than 2,000 Americans die each day from Covid, an alarming number that has been absent for six months.
The average daily death rate was also more than 2,000 at the outbreak's onset in April 2020. However, testing limitations at that time meant that the first peak of 2,245 deaths per day on April 24 could have been an underestimate.
The highest number of reported deaths is currently in large U.S. States like Florida, where there are an average 376 deaths per day over the past week. Texas is reporting an average daily death rate of 283. This is about one-third the national average.
According to a population-adjusted model, Alabama, Florida and West Virginia have the highest average daily deaths per 100,000 people.
The country's recent surge in infections is causing the death toll to rise. Although it shows some signs of slowing down, the number of cases per day remains high. The U.S. has reported about 135,000 daily cases in the last week. While the trend has been obscured much of the month because of inconsistencies between states' reporting around Labor Day, the seven-day average is still down 18% from Sept.
Hospitalizations are also on the rise, but they are decreasing. According to data from the Department of Health and Human Services, approximately 91,500 Americans are currently being hospitalized with Covid. This is a seven-day average of data. This figure was close to 103,000 at the beginning of the month.
A change in the trend in reported cases or hospitalizations is not usually reflected in the death toll for several weeks. This is because it takes time for people with the virus to get infected and then to get sick enough that they need immediate care.
Dr. Arturo Casadevall is the chair of molecular immunology at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. He stated, "I think that the curve, if there are cases, are going downward, the deaths should also follow." He said that Covid treatments have improved significantly, with better therapies than they had a year ago.
Despite encouraging signs of a nationwide trend, spread of the highly infectious delta variant continues to rise in certain states.
Wednesday's warning by the Ohio Department of Health was that many Ohio hospitals are at or nearing peak capacity. This is largely due to the increased number of unvaccinated patients. The average daily case count has increased by 33% to 6,771 from the beginning of the month.
The West Virginia and Alaska cases are at or close to all-time highs. Alaska has an average of 857 cases per day, which is a record-breaking pandemic. However, daily deaths are roughly the same as September 1, at two per hour. West Virginia has seen 26 deaths per day, an increase of 157% since the beginning of the month.
However, experts in infectious diseases warn that the outcome could be worse if Covid vaccines weren't developed.
"If there were no vaccines, and we were living in this delta, the death rates would be significantly higher," Dr. Bruce Farber, chief infectious disease officer at Northwell Health in New York, said. "Hundreds of thousands more people would have died, possibly in the millions. That's what I believe happened in countries where the delta virus spread quickly without proper vaccination.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, nearly 55% of Americans are fully vaccinated.
