Omicron Cases Appear to Peak in U.S., but Deaths Continue to Rise

[marmar]

(NYT) CHICAGO — New coronavirus cases have started to fall nationally, signaling that the Omicron-fueled spike that has infected tens of millions of Americans, packed hospitals and shattered records has finally begun to relent.

More and more states have passed a peak in new cases in recent days, as glimmers of progress have spread from a handful of eastern cities to much of the country. Through Friday, the country was averaging about 720,000 new cases a day, down from about 807,000 last week. New coronavirus hospital admissions have leveled off.

Even as hopeful data points emerge, the threat has by no means passed. The United States continues to identify far more infections a day than in any prior surge, and some states in the West, South and Great Plains are still seeing sharp increases. Many hospitals are full. And deaths continue to mount, with more than 2,100 announced most days.

But following a month of extraordinary rates of case growth, blocklong lines at testing centers and military deployments to bolster understaffed I.C.U.s, the declining new-case tallies offered a sense of relief to virus-weary Americans, especially in the Northeast and parts of the Upper Midwest, where the trends were most encouraging. After another round of masking up or hunkering down, some were considering what life might look like if conditions continued to improve. .............(more)

https://www.nytimes.com/2022/01/22/us/omicron-cases-us-deaths.html

[JT45242]

1. Deaths lag...

We haven't seen the worst if the death numbers.

Just like every other spike, hospital counts lags behind infection. Death lags behind hospitalization.

It will get worse before it gets better.

Plus people will let their collective guards down and we'll get another surge.

[Klaralven]

2. That guy from Anoka took over 2 months to die on a ventilator

ICUs can keep dead people alive for a long time.

[Demsrule86]

3. I think we have peaked in Ohio and as the studies noted you are less likely end up in the hospital

and less likely to die. As my Republican governor said, those in the hospital in intensive care and on ventilators are unvaccinated.

New research indicates that people are far less likely to be hospitalized or die from the COVID-19 Omicron variant than with the Delta variant.
Experts say people who are unvaccinated may face much higher risks than people who are vaccinated.
They do note that COVID-19 vaccines appear to be more effective against the Delta strain than against Omicron.
The Omicron variant is far less likely to cause death than the Delta variant, a new study of people with COVID-19 in California concludes.

https://www.healthline.com/health-news/omicron-is-91-percent-less-likely-to-cause-death-than-delta-variant

In addition, the study shows that your odds of ending up in the hospital or in the intensive care unit (ICU) are also greatly reduced with an Omicron case.

Buck up folks, this will be over quite soon I think...it will become one of those illnesses in the flu vaccine that people take every year.