A registered nurse goes to a Covid-19 patient at Providence St. Mary in Apple Valley, California, January 11th.
Photographer: Ariana Drehsler / AFP via Getty Images
Photographer: Ariana Drehsler / AFP via Getty Images
The number of patients hospitalized with Covid-19 was roughly flat this week in the U.S. and will likely begin to decline for the first time since September.
The numbers are now declining compared to a week earlier, in both the northeast and midwest, according to the Covid Tracking Project. In the West, they increased by 0.8%, the lowest since October 1 in percentage terms. The south has the most alarming momentum, up 4.2% from seven days earlier.
The latest wave of pandemic has filled medical facilities, which are desperate for a recovery. Currently, hospitals across the country treat more than 130,000 Covid patients, according to Monitoring Project data, more than double the load at any previous point.
American hospitalization rate
Weekly change in people currently hospitalized with Covid-19
Source: COVID monitoring project in the Atlantic
While encouraging, the trend reflects a slowdown from an extremely fast pace and may not last. The holiday incubation period has just ended, and it is likely that unmasked crowds at the U.S. Capitol and massive crowds celebrating a football victory in Tuscaloosa, Alabama, have spread the virus in recent days. At least ten states have it reported a total of 72 cases of a new, more contagious variant.
The country reported 213,885 cases of Covid-19 on Tuesday, bringing the seven-day average to 246,133, according to Covid Monitoring Project data.
According to data, at least 380,825 people have died Data from Johns Hopkins University.
According to the data of the monitoring project:
- No state reported record cases on Tuesday.
- Arizona has the most residents currently hospitalized with the virus per capita, with 698 per million.
- Arizona also had the newest number of cases per million (1,176), followed by Wyoming.