February 8, 2021 – The U.S. continued its long, slow rebound from a devastating surge in COVID-19 infections, hospitalizations, and deaths, according to the latest COVID-19 report compiled by Health Industry Advisors.
November and December punched us with a three-fold increase in detected COVID-19 cases and hospital patients and a four-fold increase in fatalities. Since early-January, however, the outlook has improved.
Already, COVID-19 cases have been sliced by half, and these patients occupy 25% fewer beds. By last week, even the daily death registry finally grew shorter. New variants threaten more uncertainty; still, COVID-19 forecasters predict cases, hospitalizations, and deaths will plummet over the next several weeks.
Vaccinations trending upward
Vaccinations surged late last week, as much of the country dug out from the recent snowstorm. On both Friday and Saturday, the U.S. reported more than 2 million vaccinations, bringing the total to 40 million administered doses.
Johnson & Johnson applied for Emergency Use Authorization (EUA) of its single-dose vaccine, with FDA approval likely to follow a February 26 emergency meeting. COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations dropped for the fourth straight week, nearly offsetting the spikes posted in November and December.
With this extended decline, the U.S. finally saw a week-over-week drop in reported deaths. New variants threaten a renewed surge; however, forecasters project that cases, hospitalizations, and fatalities will subside further in the weeks ahead.
Contributing writer:
Mark A. Van Sumeren,strategic advisor, Medical Devices & Integrated Delivery Networks
Health Industry Advisor LLC, provides a regular report on COVID-19 numbers for the health care industry.
For more information, or to sign up for the report, contact Mark at Mark.VanSumeren@HealthIndustryAdvisor.com; or visit www.HealthIndustryAdvisor.com.