Hospitalizations drop in US, but virus deaths remain high
Coronavirus hospitalizations are falling across the country, but deaths have remained stubbornly high, with 50,000 new fatalities in the last two weeks alone.
Infectious disease specialists expect deaths to start dropping as well, after new cases hit a peak right around the beginning of the year.
“The patients who were infected in that wave — or in that peak — who will ultimately die of COVID, those deaths are happening now,” said Dr. Thomas Holland of Duke University.
The nation reported 3,912 COVID-19 deaths Wednesday, down from the pandemic peak of 4,466 deaths on Jan. 12. On Thursday, the U.S. topped 454,000 deaths, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The biggest driver to the death toll over the past month has been California, which has averaged more than 500 deaths per day in recent weeks.
Alabama is another hot spot. The seven-day rolling average of deaths there has risen over the past two weeks, from 74 to 147 deaths per day. Kentucky, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina and Tennessee also saw surges in deaths.
The hardest-hit demographic groups continue to be the oldest and frailest, Holland said. When coronavirus first swept through the country, it was concentrated in nursing homes, prisons and other congregate care settings. It later spread more broadly.
“But deaths have still been concentrated among older patients and patients” with other health problems, Holland said. “Even as the pandemic has spread more broadly in the population, the demographics of who dies from COVID has not really changed.”
In Florida, 83 percent of deaths attributed to the virus have been in people 65 and older.
Public health experts are monitoring Florida closely this week, because the Super Bowl will be played in Tampa.
City leaders and the NFL are trying to ensure social distancing by capping attendance at a third of the stadium’s capacity — 22,000 people. Still, there will be parties, events at bars and clubs, and other activities that draw people together.
While most people who become infected will recover, others face a much longer road. It can take a week or two to get sick enough to end up in the hospital. Then, those who are severely ill may end up in an ICU for many weeks, and some will die.
Treatments have evolved for COVID over time, but there have not been any “game-changing miracle treatments” on par with the development of the vaccine, Holland said.
“We’ve had things on the margin that are helpful,” Holland said.
Among those, the use of steroids for patients who require oxygen, different ventilator strategies, and preventing and managing blood clots. There’s also the use of monoclonal antibodies for outpatients early in their illness who do not need to be on oxygen, but who might be at higher risk of complications.