26 states see ‘substantial’ spike in COVID hospitalizations, CDC says
uphillbothways@kbin.social to 
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said hospitalizations rose yet again last week by another 19%. Deaths from the virus also saw a large jump: 21% in one week.
The summer surge in COVID-19 spread could extend into fall. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said hospitalizations rose yet again last week by another 19%. Deaths from the virus also saw a large jump: 21% in one week.
The spread of the virus appears to be a problem just about everywhere. Only a few states – Alaska, New Hampshire and North Dakota – saw COVID-related hospital admissions drop last week.
The other 47 states saw hospitalizations remain stable or increase. More than half of states – 26 to be exact – experienced a “substantial increase” in people being admitted with COVID-19, the CDC said.
A “substantial” jump, shaded in dark orange on the CDC map below, occurs when new hospital admissions increase by more than 20% in a single week.
https://thehill.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/2/2023/08/ChangeinCOVID19NewHospitalAdmissionsfromPriorWeekbyStateTerritoryUnitedStates.png
Twenty-six states had a 20% or larger increase in COVID-19 hospitalizations week over week, the CDC said on August 28, 2023. (Map: CDC)
The biggest spike was in South Dakota, where hospitalizations increased by more than 127% in a single week, according to CDC tracking.
Help is on the way in the form of a new booster shot targeting a recent strain of the omicron variant – but it’s not expected to be approved until the end of September.
In the meantime, things might get worse as students head back to classrooms and dorm rooms.
“Overall, I would expect cases and hospitalizations to increase – then decrease again before they rise in the late fall and early winter,” said Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease expert at UCSF, when asked about back-to-school season’s impact on COVID spread.
“This has been the pattern for the past three years and may be where COVID may settle to: a smaller swell in the summer and a larger increase in cases in the late fall and winter,” he said.
Over the next few weeks, the Food and Drug Administration and the CDC are expected to give more information on who can get the new booster shot and when.
archive link: https://archive.is/Xp7gu
If anyone's confused about why Florida's numbers look stable, the Florida government intentionally fucked with the way they count COVID-19 cases, so their numbers are almost 100% certain to be wrong.
As for the rest, yeah, the whole country is clearly doing worse for the most part. But the ones doing the very worst are, shall we say, the usual suspects. (I.e., conservative Republican-run states.)
Whats the method they count cases? Vs how the rest count them?
Counting has been declared as ‘woke’ in Florida, so naturally they’ve banned it.
From what I recall they do this delayed count thing, so that cases from a month ago count, but more recent cases don't until they've been "confirmed".
The resulting graph makes it looks like cases are on the decline, always.
Other states just count positive results in real time, or as close as they can.
Oh perfect, that booster should be in most arms of those who actively vaccinate by the time this wave ends.
I'm just worried about what happens between now and when the boosters are available. Anti-vaxxers deserve what's coming to them, but they take up valuable hospital space.
Winter is always a worse spike because of everyone traveling and gathering for the holidays, though.
But guys, haven't you heard? Covid is weak now and forever more! I couldnt possibly deprive the world of seeing the bottom half of my face, and lines were meant to be waited in crotch to crotch! /s
nut to butt
Why not emergency authorize the new vaccine immediately?
Oh I forgot. Republicans. That's why.
they just need to see if there's some way for all of them to get bribes.. just takes a while..
Oh goodie, an omicron vaccine right as a new strain is gaining traction
The new strain is thankfully closely related to Omicron.
Has there been any analysis crunching covid deaths against political outcomes? Thinking about all the purple areas - neck and neck splits. How many have died there, how many of those deaths were red vs blue voters, and how close do local elections usually pan out?
I'm guessing covid has caused a direct measurable blue shift at this point; unsure if it's to an extent that will impact vote outcomes.
This is all pretty wild from a societal development angle: we are literally seeing an entire-humanity scale Darwinism event unfold -- and we're late enough into it that we can really start to make sense of the impact it's having / will have on our species. Not so much in the sense of offspring passing down DNA (I mean, that too...); but in the path we collectively choose to put ourselves on in the form of policy.
So Oregon's fires and Cali's floods have saved them from Covid.
That's a weird benefit of one catastrophy over another.
The only surprise here is that the CDC is acknowledging it.