Tag: COVID-19

This edition reexamines COVID case, death, and vaccination trends in the wake of the new (potentially more contagious) Omicron variant. Cases and deaths in 2021 have already eclipsed 2020 figures. More than 28 million cases have been reported in 2021 – about 40% higher than in 2020. Nearly 408,000 deaths have been reported so far throughout 2021 – well above the nearly 360,000 reported in 2020.

This edition revisits pediatric COVID-19 trends in the United States. Schools have now been opened for several weeks, providing an opportunity to assess the initial effects of student gatherings in classrooms. We observe decreasing, albeit still extremely high, pediatric case counts during the week ending in September 23, with children composing 27% of all new cases – more than double their share reported during the first week of January. Around 200,000 new pediatric cases are being reported each day.

In this edition of our 5 Slide Series, we return to presenting COVID death trends, as the pandemic’s recent resurgence merits significant attention. Average daily deaths across the prior 7-day period were 361 on June 13, 274 on July 13, 650 on August 13, and 1,827 on September 13. Every two days, more Americans are currently dying of COVID than perished in the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. We break down these death numbers by state political lean, finding that states with Republican governors and majority Trump 2020 vote share have much higher per capita death rates, and compose a disproportionate share of national deaths compared to their share of the population.

This edition provides a weekly update of COVID cases, deaths, and vaccinations, including county, state, and national views of vaccinations. As of this week, the U.S. has now given roughly 250 million COVID vaccine doses. 44.5% of the population is now vaccinated with at least one dose and 32% is now fully vaccinated, including 83% of seniors receiving at least one dose and 70% receiving full vaccinations. We provide a week-over-week view of vaccination rates by state, as well as a series of county-level maps that shows the variation in vaccination uptake across the country.

This edition provides an international comparison of COVID vaccination rates across continents. As of April 28, over 1.08 billion COVID vaccinations have been given in all countries since the start of the pandemic. Nearly 578 million people have been partially vaccinated and nearly 254 million people have been fully vaccinated. Nearly one in five of all vaccinations given thus far have been in Asia, followed by one in four in North America and one in five in Europe. Internationally, 13.8 vaccinations have been given per 100 persons and just 3.2% of the world population is fully vaccinated.  The highest share of full vaccination among the population has occurred in North America (18%) and the lowest in Oceania (0.1%), Africa (0.4%), and Asia (1.3%).

This week’s edition of our 5 Slide Series provides updates of weekly trends in COVID cases, deaths, and vaccinations at both the state and national level. We show both positive and concerning news from the front of the battle against the pandemic. First, both confirmed cases and deaths have declined week-over-week (April 14-20 vs April 7-April 13), but average cases for the month of April have been 15% higher than their March monthly average. New daily deaths, meanwhile, have plummeted to a low not seen in months. Deaths for the month of April have so far averaged 674 a day—37% and 70% below the March and February monthly averages, respectively.

This edition provides an overview of how COVID cases and deaths have changed over the past month. New COVID cases for the first 11 days of April were up 16.3% and new deaths were down 53.7% compared to the first 11 days of March. The increased case volume is concerning and the seven day average in daily deaths has flattened out near 1,000 during the past week.

This is our 50th edition on COVID-19. While more than 25% of the U.S. population has now been at least partially vaccinated (including two-thirds of persons above age 65!), significant differentials exist by race. Asian, Black, and Hispanic/Latino subgroups have been under-vaccinated relative to each subgroup’s share of the total population, with the White population receiving a larger share of vaccinations than their share of the population. We show that these disparities exist in nearly every state where vaccinations have been reported by race. We also show the nationwide daily progression of the seven day average in COVID cases, hospitalizations, deaths, and vaccinations throughout the pandemic, as well as per capita cases and deaths by state.

This edition provides tabulations of monthly COVID cases and deaths at the state level throughout the pandemic and quantifies the past week’s trends. The United States reported the highest number of new monthly cases in December 2020 and experienced the highest number of COVID deaths in January 2021. Newly reported COVID cases and deaths have since declined in subsequent months

As of March 17, 111.6 million vaccine doses have been given out at the state level. As a result, 22.2% of the U.S. population has now been at least partially vaccinated with a COVID vaccine, and 12.0% is now fully vaccinated.

This week’s 5 Slide Edition presents our estimates of how many more deaths have occurred in 2020 and 2021 than would have in normal times. Our findings are striking: Between April 2020 and January 2021, total deaths in the U.S. were 25% above the amount that would have occurred based on each month’s average deaths across 2017 through 2019. Our cumulative excess death estimate through January 2021, 591,492, is approximately 164,000 (or about 38.3%) above the number of COVID attributed deaths during this ten month timeframe.

We also compare 2020 deaths with prior years by race, finding that minority populations suffered the largest percentage increases in deaths during 2020 compared to historical averages. We also find that the 25–44 age bracket experienced the sharpest percentage increase in total deaths in 2020 compared to its 2015-2019 historical average, followed by the 65-74 and the 75-84 age cohorts.