The US government may be done with Covid, but recent data shows an alarming number of Americans are still dying from the respiratory disease
Nearly four years into the pandemic, hundreds of Americans are still dying every day from Covid, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
The virus is responsible for around 1,000 deaths and 15,000 hospitalisations each week, CDC Director Mandy Cohen said during a media briefing on 2 December.
Death rates briefly dipped below 500 per week in July, the lowest rates since the pandemic began, before steadily increasing to as high as 1,400 in September.
The latest CDC data shows emergency doctor visits and hospitalisations spiked by 10 per cent over one week in mid-November, the first major increase in the virus’s spread for several months.
Something to note is deaths don’t tell the whole story, covid has many somewhat common long-term side effects such as exhaustion and respiratory issues, which can last years after infection. Long covid (basically a mix of these and many more symptoms) also affects about 1/4 people who get covid, though this is trending downward.