November 8, 2024
These Are the Top COVID Hot Spots in the U.S.

COVID-19 hospitalizations in the U.S. again rose week over week to hit a level not seen since close to a year ago, according to the latest figures from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The U.S. tallied more than 29,000 new hospitalizations of people with COVID-19 over the seven days ending Dec. 23, according to provisional data – about 4,200 more than the total for the previous week and a rise of about 17%. The uptick marks the seventh weekly increase in a row, and the total amounts to the highest weekly number of hospitalizations since nearly 32,000 were tallied for the week ending Jan. 21, 2023.

Relative to population, data points to 8.8 new COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people for the week ending Dec. 23. Nineteen states and the District of Columbia were characterized by the CDC as having a “medium” level of hospitalizations, while the remaining were described as having a “low” level.

These are the states with the highest rates of new COVID-19 hospital admissions:

Compared with the week prior, Delaware had the highest percentage increase among states in its rate of new COVID-19 hospitalizations, at 61.9%. Iowa saw the largest decrease at minus 22.8%.

Among patients visiting a subset of emergency departments, data indicates 2.5% of visits nationally involved a COVID-19 diagnosis – a rate that increased 12% from the week before. Iowa (4.6%), West Virginia (4.4%) and Michigan (3.8%) saw the highest rates among states.

Among U.S. counties – inclusive of areas like the District of Columbia, Guam and municipios in Puerto Rico – 236 were described by the CDC as having a “high” level of new COVID-19 hospital admissions in the week ending Dec. 23, with rates of 20 per 100,000 or higher. The counties of Daniels and Sheridan in Montana were reported to have the highest rates, at 120 per 100,000 people – six times the CDC’s “high” threshold baseline. Another 993 counties were said to have a “medium” level of COVID-19 hospital admissions, with rates between 10.0 and 19.9 per 100,000 people.

Notably, the CDC’s county hospital admission figures are calculated at the Health Service Area level, which can span multiple counties. This means counties within the same HSA will share the same admission rates in the data. Areas also may be listed as having insufficient data.

The counties with the highest rates of COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people:

  • Daniels County, Montana (120.0)
  • Sheridan County, Montana (120.0)
  • Ness County, Kansas (72.7)
  • Nemaha County, Nebraska (71.7)
  • Merrick County, Nebraska (64.2)
  • Greeley County, Nebraska (64.2)
  • Howard County, Nebraska (64.2)
  • Hamilton County, Nebraska (64.2)
  • Hall County, Nebraska (64.2)
  • Cheyenne County, Kansas (57.8)
  • Rawlins County, Kansas (57.8)
  • Johnson County, Nebraska (47.4)
  • Otoe County, Nebraska (47.4)
  • McIntosh County, North Dakota (46.0)
  • Logan County, North Dakota (46.0)
  • LaMoure County, North Dakota (44.9)
  • Dickey County, North Dakota (44.9)
  • Wheeler County, Nebraska (44.4)
  • Valley County, Nebraska (44.4)
  • Thomas County, Nebraska (44.4)
  • Logan County, Nebraska (44.4)
  • Loup County, Nebraska (44.4)
  • Blaine County, Nebraska (44.4)
  • Garfield County, Nebraska (44.4)
  • Custer County, Nebraska (44.4)

Because hospitalization rates are calculated per 100,000 people, it’s worth noting that even a small number of hospitalizations can lead to a relatively high hospitalization rate for small communities. Yet the CDC also says its most recent COVID-19 hospitalization figures may be underestimated, as the data may have been impacted by the holidays and reporting delays.

Other measures also can give a sense of the current state of COVID-19. For example, though the CDC has ceased publishing a “community level” metric that incorporated COVID-19 case rates and hospital admissions – as well as the average percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients – participating health departments submit data from sampling and testing of wastewater for the virus to the CDC via the National Wastewater Surveillance System.

Since the U.S. passed 1 million cumulative deaths tied to COVID-19 in the spring of 2022, approximately 163,000 additional people have died in connection with the disease, according to provisional data from the CDC.

And while the latest tallies are well below the peak of around 26,000 deaths in a week in early 2021, data indicates more than 1,000 people each week have been dying in connection with COVID-19 as of late. In Maine, 6.3% of the state’s total deaths were due to COVID-19 during the week ending Dec. 23, according to provisional data, with an additional 13 states seeing attributable shares higher than the national percentage of 3.3%.

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