Covid Hospital Traffic in Some States Drops to Pre-Delta Levels
Covid Hospital Admissions in Some Areas Near Levels Before Delta
(Bloomberg) -- The U.S. is far from a full recovery from the latest Covid-19 wave, but some recent hot spots are getting close.
In Florida, the seven-day average of new adult hospital admissions with Covid is about 469 a day. That’s just slightly above the level on May 13, when the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention significantly relaxed its masking guidance for fully vaccinated people -- a change that it reversed when the highly contagious delta variant ripped through the U.S.
In at least eight other states and the nation’s capital, the numbers are below or close to May levels.
There are other positive signs. The one-week average of new cases nationally has dropped 40% from its Sept. 21 peak, according to CDC data.The effective reproduction number or Rt -- a measure of average new infections from one newly infected person -- is below 1 in 45 states and Washington, D.C., which signals cases there are expected to decline.
Even if hospitalizations everywhere return to pre-delta wave levels, it’s unclear how the U.S. will react to the recovery this time around. Delta has shown that, even with inoculations, outbreaks can ignite quickly, and the U.S. is heading into its traditional virus season.
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