COVID-19 increases with emergency room visits and deaths in summer
New COVID-19 variant could trigger summer surge
A new round of COVID-19 variants has health authorities on high alert, especially with summer fast approaching.
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National health data show that more people have ended up in the emergency room and died from COVID-19 in recent weeks.
The information collected by authorities, called surveillance data, that tracks cases and the spread of COVID-19 is limited. However, COVID-19 hospitalizations and deaths are indicators of the spread of the disease. According to the latest data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the numbers of emergency room admissions and deaths have increased.
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COVID-19, with its endless list of mutating subvariants, seems to have more predictable seasons, with big spikes in cases in the winter months and smaller spikes in the summer. Experts previously told USA TODAY that cases appear to be increasing this summer. But compared to earlier in the pandemic, Americans are not at nearly the same risk of severe illness or death from COVID-19, thanks in part to vaccines and previous infections protecting people.
But that doesn’t mean people shouldn’t worry. More than 75,000 people died from COVID-19 in 2023. Nearly a million people ended up in U.S. hospitals last year.
There was a 23% increase in emergency room visits, according to CDC data released Monday. The data is from the week of June 22, the most recent week available, and shows the weekly percentage of emergency room visits diagnosed as COVID-19 is 0.9%. They showed a significant increase in diagnoses in Hawaii and, to a lesser extent, Arizona, New Mexico, Florida and Washington. The percentage of COVID-19 diagnoses has increased slightly since early May, the CDC data showed.
There were no notable changes in COVID-19-related hospitalizations. However, deaths increased by 14% in the past week. While that sounds alarming, it’s important to note that this is a percentage increase compared to recent numbers. That doesn’t mean the total number of deaths is anywhere near what it was at the beginning of the pandemic.
CDC: Updated COVID vaccines and flu shots recommended for fall
Preliminary data show hundreds of deaths, compared to an average of more than 2,000 deaths per week in late December and January. Before that, when the omicron variant dominated cases in 2021, the weekly average this winter was over 20,000 deaths.
Health officials said during a recent panel of experts on approving updated COVID-19 vaccines this fall that older people remain at increased risk for the worst COVID-19 cases. The CDC recommends that everyone 6 months of age and older receive the updated COVID-19 vaccine when it becomes available later this year.
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