The U.S. tallied about 15,000 reported hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 over the seven days ending Aug. 19. Though a far cry from previous totals during the pandemic, that’s a 19% increase from the week prior, continuing a climb that started at the end of June after hospitalizations reached a recent weekly low point of approximately 6,300.
Relative to population, the latest tally equates to 4.5 people per 100,000 admitted to the hospital. By state, Hawaii and Florida saw the highest rates of new COVID-19 hospitalizations, at 9.8 and 9.7 per 100,000, respectively – more than twice the national rate. Louisiana (6.6), Alabama (6.5) and Mississippi (6.5) had the next-highest rates.
Among patients visiting emergency departments, 1.9% were diagnosed with COVID-19 nationally. Hawaii and the southeastern states of Mississippi, Florida, Alabama and Louisiana saw shares higher than 3%.
Seven counties were described by the CDC as having a “high” level of COVID-19 hospital admissions, with rates of 20 per 100,000 or higher. Several counties in Mississippi – Noxubee, Lowndes, and Clay – as well as Lamar County, Alabama, were reported to have seen 26.4 new hospitalizations per 100,000 people. Another 117 counties were said to have a “medium” level of COVID-19 hospital admissions – with rates between 10.0 and 19.9 per 100,000 people.
Notably, the CDC’s county hospital admission figures are calculated at the Health Service Area level, which can span multiple counties. This means counties within the same HSA will share the same admission rates in the data.
The counties with the highest rates of COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people were:
Lamar County, Alabama - 26.4
Clay County, Mississippi - 26.4
Lowndes County, Mississippi - 26.4
Noxubee County, Mississippi - 26.4
Fisher County, Texas - 25.8
Mitchell County, Texas - 25.8
Nolan County, Texas - 25.8
Jefferson County, Georgia - 19.6
Washington County, Georgia - 19.6
Claiborne Parish, Louisiana - 19.1
Fillmore County, Nebraska - 19.1
Thayer County, Nebraska - 19.1
Stevens County, Kansas - 18.2
Furnas County, Nebraska - 17.6
Harlan County, Nebraska - 17.6
Phelps County, Nebraska - 17.6
Rutland County, Vermont - 17.2
Foard County, Texas - 16.8
Hardeman County, Texas - 16.8
Wilbarger County, Texas - 16.8
Because hospitalization rates are calculated per 100,000 people, it’s worth noting that even a relatively small number of hospitalizations in a small community can lead to a higher hospitalization rate.
Other measures also can give a sense of the current state of COVID-19. Though the CDC has ceased publishing a "community level" metric that incorporated COVID-19 case rates and hospital admissions – as well as the average percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients – health departments can submit the results of their sampling of wastewater for the virus to the CDC via the National Wastewater Surveillance System.
Since the U.S. passed 1 million cumulative deaths tied to COVID-19 in the spring of 2022, more than 138,000 additional people have died in connection with the disease, according to provisional data from the CDC.
While the latest tallies are down from a recent peak of about 3,900 deaths in a week in January – and well below the maximum peak of around 26,000 deaths per week in early 2021 – data indicates hundreds of people have died in connection with COVID-19 of late. Maryland and Florida each saw 3.4% of their total deaths attributed to COVID-19 during the week ending Aug. 19, doubling the national percentage.
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