As local, state and national officials continue to make concerted mitigation efforts against the spread of COVID-19, the virus continues to spread. Thus, average constellations change year-over-year in each state.
To investigate how mortality rates in the country have changed during the COVID-19 pandemic, Stacker consulted preliminary deaths reported to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) National Vital Statistics System. The CDC reports deaths from all causes during the COVID-19 pandemic and all deaths confirmed as COVID-19 cases. Counts in this story are current as of August 12, but do not account for the fact that many health experts agree that these figures are almost certainly underreported.
In its data work, the CDC compares the death toll in a region during the COVID-19 pandemic (February to August 2020) with the average death rate in that area over the same period of months in the previous three years (2017 to 2019). This comparison is expressed through a value called “excessive deaths”: the deaths that occurred from February 1 to August 1, 2020, which are expected to be above the death toll during this time.
These metric excessive deaths can be used to estimate the true toll of the pandemic, as many deaths directly linked to COVID-19 may not be included in the official census, such as deaths among those who may COVID -19 have committed but remained undiagnosed, and deaths linked to the punishments of the disease on the health care system and economy of our country. The CDC database page also notes that preliminary death counts are not definitive, and may change as more death records are received and processed; In addition, each state has its own reporting system, and some only update weekly rather than monthly. The values included in this story are rounded to the nearest 100 to reflect that these are preliminary counts.
Keep reading to see how COVID-19 has affected the mortality rate in the US
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