Does COVID kill someone in the U.S. every minute? It’s actually worse, data show
As coronavirus rages across the country, fulfilling expert’s fears of a fall and winter surge, record numbers of Americans are dying from the disease.
As of Monday, nearly 17,200 died of COVID-19 in the U.S. over the last seven days, for an average of about 2,450 per day, according to Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data.
That means every 35 seconds, someone dies from COVID-19 in the United States.
This grim figure comes alongside another: 300,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 since February, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The U.S. death rate has risen greatly compared to when the nation reached 150,000 fatalities in July. At that time, somebody, somewhere in the country was dying every minute due to the coronavirus, Reuters reported.
The predicted surge isn’t going to taper off anytime soon, health officials say, and will probably worsen as we move into winter, CNN reported.
“The reality is, December and January and February are going to be rough times,” CDC director Robert Redfield said, the outlet reported.
“I actually believe they’re going to be the most difficult in the public health history of this nation, largely because of the stress that’s going to be put on our health care system.”
Many health officials are confident that a vaccine, which had a 95% efficacy rate in test trials, is a turning point in the struggle against the pandemic, McClatchy News reported.
The first vaccines in the U.S. were given Monday and millions more are expected to follow.
But it will likely be months before enough vaccine is manufactured to inoculate the general public, as front line health care workers, residents of long term care facilities and others — those most at risk of catching the virus and of developing complications — will be vaccinated first, McClatchy New reported.
The shots many healthcare workers got today contained the vaccine created by Pfizer. Drug manufacturer Moderna is also pursuing recommendation for emergency use from the FDA for its own vaccine, which was found to be about as effective as Pfizer’s. Both require two doses taken at separate times to work effectively.
Intensive care units are already filling up in large cities and small towns alike, a New York Times analysis of federal Health and Human Services department data found.
Healthcare workers worry, if the situation nationwide continues to worsen, will there be enough help, and enough beds for everyone who needs one?
“This disease progresses very quickly and can get very ugly very fast. When you don’t have that capacity, that means people will die,” Beth Blauer, director of the Centers for Civic Impact at Johns Hopkins University, told the outlet.
