Hospitalizations hit 100,000 in United States for first time since January
By Bryan Pietsch and Jacqueline Dupree
Today at 4:37 a.m. EDT
There are more than 100,000 people hospitalized with covid-19 in the United States, a level not seen since Jan. 30 — when coronavirus vaccines were not widely available — as the country grapples with the delta variant’s spread.
Hospitalizations are highest across the South, where every state in the region has a higher portion of its population currently hospitalized with covid-19 than the national level, according to a Washington Post database. More than 17,000 people are currently hospitalized with covid-19 in Florida, which has the most hospitalizations for covid-19 of any state in the country, followed by Texas, which has more than 14,000.
Amid a raging debate over mask requirements in schools, current pediatric hospitalizations have reached 2,100 nationally, topping 2,000 for the first time since August 2020.
New coronavirus cases are being reported across the country at similar levels to those seen in January. About 151,000 new daily cases were being reported on average on Jan. 30; on Wednesday, that figure was 148,000. However, even as many hospitals are under strain and report shortages of intensive care unit beds, overall deaths are far lower; the daily average of deaths at the end of January was 3,100 and about 1,100 as of Wednesday.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/nation/2021/08/26/covid-delta-variant-live-updates/
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