New Cases Dropping but Still High
It's "Tier Tuesday" as California reporters used to say when California had a Covid risk tier system and updated it every Tuesday. I like the weekly cadence for checking the latest Coronavirus statistics. It keeps me updated at a regular interval without the risk of "doomscrolling" by reading about Coronavirus infections, deaths, etc. too frequently.
The good news today is that new cases are down by 2/3 from their peak a few weeks ago. According to The New York Times' Coronavirus in the US page the 7-day average as of last night, 7 Feb 2022, is 253,782. The peak of 806,795 occurred Jan 14. We're at less than 1/3 of that peak now.
The not-so-good news is that even though we're well below the peak infections of the Omicron/winter holidays surge, we're still well above the infection rates of a few months ago. The new case rate on Nov. 27, when news of the Omicron strain first hit major national media, was 85,432. While the peak of the surge was 9x that, even today we are still 3x that level.
The low point of the past year occurred last summer, Jun. 21, when the 7-day average reached as low 11,179. Today's rate, while dropping, is still more than 22x that low.
Death Marches On
More bad news- yes, the bad news outnumbers the good 3:1- is that the Covid death rate remains very high. Yesterday 2,598 deaths were recorded in the US. We're at the highest death rates seen in more than 12 months. We passed a total of 900,000 deaths from Covid a few days ago. The grim 1 million death mark is likely to fall by the end of March.
For comparison, the 9-11 attacks killed 2,977 people (excluding the terrorist perpetrators). The US turned life upside down for 20 years and counting because of that one day death toll. The same US now shrugs its shoulders when nearly as many people die each day from an almost totally preventable cause.
The good news today is that new cases are down by 2/3 from their peak a few weeks ago. According to The New York Times' Coronavirus in the US page the 7-day average as of last night, 7 Feb 2022, is 253,782. The peak of 806,795 occurred Jan 14. We're at less than 1/3 of that peak now.
The not-so-good news is that even though we're well below the peak infections of the Omicron/winter holidays surge, we're still well above the infection rates of a few months ago. The new case rate on Nov. 27, when news of the Omicron strain first hit major national media, was 85,432. While the peak of the surge was 9x that, even today we are still 3x that level.
The low point of the past year occurred last summer, Jun. 21, when the 7-day average reached as low 11,179. Today's rate, while dropping, is still more than 22x that low.
Death Marches On
More bad news- yes, the bad news outnumbers the good 3:1- is that the Covid death rate remains very high. Yesterday 2,598 deaths were recorded in the US. We're at the highest death rates seen in more than 12 months. We passed a total of 900,000 deaths from Covid a few days ago. The grim 1 million death mark is likely to fall by the end of March.
For comparison, the 9-11 attacks killed 2,977 people (excluding the terrorist perpetrators). The US turned life upside down for 20 years and counting because of that one day death toll. The same US now shrugs its shoulders when nearly as many people die each day from an almost totally preventable cause.