After falling for months, Covid-19 hospitalizations in the US are approaching their April peak

At the height of the pandemic in April, 59,538 people were hospitalized across the country on April 15, according to the Covid Monitoring Project. That number reached its lowest level on June 15 with 27,772 people hospitalized. But as of July 20, that number has risen to 58,330 again, only hinting below the April high.

Only a serious illness like Covid-19 would do that.

“As testing rates increase, we are also seeing increases in three other key indicators that suggest we are seeing a real increase in Covid infections,” said Dr. Jeanne Marrazzo, director of the Division of Infectious Diseases at the University of Alabama School of Medicine. . She cited hospitalization rates, positivity rates, and deaths, which are now increasing in 26 states.

This is how coronavirus is affecting hospitals in areas where it is spreading.

Hospitalizations in Florida

There are more than 9,500 people hospitalized in Florida and at least 53 hospitals in 27 counties said they had no more beds in their ICUs, according to AHCA data.

At the state level, the availability of beds in the ICU is 15.98%, that is, “beds available in the ICU for adults”, according to AHCA data. On Monday, the count of available beds in the ICU was 18.1%.

For comparison, in New York City, where the pandemic first caught on in the United States, officials reported a positivity rate of just 2%.

Hospitalizations in California

California was the first state to issue a stay-at-home order on March 18.

Less than a month later, California Governor Gavin Newsom said residents had “turned the curve” and that the state began to phase out the early stages of its reopening plan in May.

Now, Los Angeles County has broken its record for daily hospitalizations for the fourth time in the past week alone, according to Dr. Barbara Ferrer, the county’s director of public health.

Statewide, hospitalization and intensive care unit rates are back to high levels with increases of 1.9% and 0.7% respectively, according to the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

Meanwhile, California’s positivity rate for the past two weeks is 7.5%, which is slightly below the state’s goal of staying below 8%, according to CDPH data. To date, more than 6.5 million tests have been carried out.

“We open too soon,” Anne Rimoin, a professor of epidemiology at the University of California, Los Angeles, told CNN. “We did not have the virus fully under control.”

California is fast approaching New York in the total number of confirmed cases, and at this rate, it could easily overtake New York to have the highest number of confirmed cases in the US.

“Regardless of what is done, states experiencing these increases in serious illness and health facilities under siege need help and a plan B, because plan A, reopening with lukewarm or no adherence to masks or social distancing clearly does not It worked, “said Marrazzo.

Hospitalizations in Texas

Texas hospitals face an unprecedented wave of hospitalizations: It is the only state in the United States that currently has more than 10,000 hospitalizations.

While that number remains comparably low to the record 18,825 hospitalized in New York during the peak of the pandemic, there is fear that it may match or exceed its current rate.

On Monday, President Trump acknowledged that the state, along with Florida, was dealing with an “outbreak” in the cases.

It is not the second wave, it is the first.

Officials and experts have long warned the public about preparing for a second wave, but the first wave has not really ended and the spread of the virus has not even been remotely contained, some experts say.

“Some places never experienced the end of a first wave, certainly in the South, we have never really been below a reference level since April,” said Marrazzo. “A real second wave for me would be if a place that has really controlled the spread, like New York or Connecticut, had another wave.”

Marrazzo believes that the increase in hospitalizations can be attributed to one simple thing: the uncontrolled and sustained spread of infection in the community. Until the spread of the virus is contained, the hospitalization rate will remain high.

“None of those currently experiencing these troubling trends met the criteria set by the task force, which included a sustained downward trend in positive percentage testing for at least 2 weeks,” said Marrazzo.

At least 27 states in the United States have paused or reversed their reopening plans due to rising infection rates. The math is simple: more infections will lead to more hospitalizations.