The United States on Thursday continued to set or approach new all-time highs for coronavirus infections and hospital admissions, as the country continued its lurch into the pandemic’s latest phase and experts debated the utility of some long-standing metrics to measure the impact of covid-19.
Since the omicron variant began its dominant reign, new virus cases have exploded, smashing old daily records with such frequency and dependability that it has ceased to be headline-grabbing news. On Thursday, the seven-day average of new cases surpassed 600,000 for the first time, according to Washington Post tracking.
But because omicron appears to cause less severe illness while also being ultra-contagious, some of the nation’s leading experts — including the White House’s top medical adviser, Anthony S. Fauci — have said the more important statistic is covid-19 hospitalizations.
On that front, the numbers aren’t rising as rapidly as infections, but cause for concern remains. On Thursday, the country recorded more than 25,500 new hospital admits who have tested positive for the virus or who have suspected infections — the second-highest total on record, trailing only a mark set one year ago, during the first devastating winter wave. The number of pediatric covid inpatients has doubled since Christmas to an average of more than 3,900 children.
However, while the number of total covid inpatients has increased steadily, it still remains well short of the levels reached last year, a sign that many of those newly admitted patients are being released faster than at previous points in the pandemic. And the number of total covid-positive patients in ICUs — the most serious cases — has risen, but also remains lower than last year’s peaks.
In recent days, more evidence has emerged that overall hospitalization data may not tell a straightforward story, either. Hospitals across the country have reported key differences in this latest surge of patients. In some facilities, a large share of positive patients were initially admitted for other maladies and their covid infections were discovered incidentally.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul this week directed her state’s hospitals to begin distinguishing these cases — the people who were hospitalized for their covid symptoms and those whose infections are secondary. But no matter how the numbers are sliced, she added, hospitals only have so much capacity. Health-care workers have said this latest crunch of cases comes at a perilous time, with hospitals stretched thin and staff shortages on the rise.
