- COVID-19 may be more under control, but it hasn’t disappeared in the United States.
- Nearly 2,000 are still being hospitalized for COVID-19 every week in the United States.
- The rise of the more infectious delta variant means people who have not yet been vaccinated could be at higher risk of developing the disease.
COVID-19 hospitalization rates are falling nationwide, but that doesn’t mean no one is getting sick.
The current
Where hospitalization rates remain high, the patients have one thing in common: They are unvaccinated. As a result, more young people are being admitted to hospitals. Older people and those with underlying conditions have high rates of vaccination.
“It’s true. Nationally, as well as in our own institution, the vast majority of people being hospitalized are un- or partially vaccinated,” said Dr. William Schaffner, professor of Preventive Medicine in the Department of Health Policy and professor of Medicine in the Division of Infectious Diseases at Vanderbilt University School of Medicine. “That’s over 90 percent of individuals. That offers very powerful evidence that the vaccine is working.”
As of June 28, 77.7 percent of adults over the age of 65 are fully vaccinated. That number drops as age drops, but the percentages are still high. More than 57 percent of adults over the age of 18 are fully vaccinated, and more than 54 percent of the population over age 12 is fully vaccinated.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the overall number of hospitalizations is going down, but the people affected are increasingly young. Now, people between ages 18 to 49 are making up a larger percentage of those hospitalized.
“Initially when COVID struck, it was older people who were in the hospital,” said Schaffner. “That demographic has changed. It’s now the middle-aged and younger in the dominant group. That goes with information concerning who is vaccinated.”
Source: healthline