It has been six months since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the United States in March forcing nationwide shutdowns and changing the way millions of people live, but new information from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) raises questions about the severity of coronavirus and who is impacted most.
For six percent of the deaths between February 1 and August 29, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned. Conversely, 94 percent of deaths involving COVID have additional causes or conditions, according to the CDC.
For the deaths involving COVID and other conditions, there were 2.6 additional causes per death on average, the CDC says.
Conditions additional to COVID that have accounted of the most deaths include influenza and pneumonia (77,700), respiratory failure (57,502), hypertensive diseases (37,314), diabetes (27,528) and adult respiratory distress syndrome (22,747), among others, CDC data says.
The age group that is the most impacted are people 55-years or older with people 75-84 and 85 or older accounting for more than half of the deaths where influenza and pneumonia was additional to COVID-19, according to the CDC.
This data allows scientists, the government and the public to continually improve their understanding of COVID-19. The information also raises questions about the risk for younger, healthy people with no underlying conditions and if the national shutdowns were as warranted as many people originally believed in march.
Of course, we will not know how many lives the initial shutdowns and quarantining saved for a very long time, if ever.
Nationally, the seven day average for new cases, current hospitalizations and new deaths are going down, while the average for new tests is going up, but still below the end of July peak, according to The COVID Tracking Project.Â
In Virginia, as of Saturday, there have been 125,727 cases – 5,536 classified as probable – 9,849 total hospitalizations and 2,677 total deaths, according to the Virginia Department of Health (VDH) COVID-19 daily dashboard.
As far as testing goes, there have been 1,652,020 PCR (polymerase chain reaction) tests and the current seven day positivity rate PCR only is 7.7 percent, VDH data shows.
The age group of Virginians with the most cases is 20-29 (25,495), 30-39 (22,339) and 40-49 (20,050). Cases broken down by race: White (33,051), Latino (31,409), Black (24,978) and Asian or Pacific Islander (3,707). Females (64,574) have more cases than males (60,364) currently, the VDH says.
Virginians ages 50 and over represent the vast majority of hospitalizations in the Commonwealth with 7,060 out of 9,849, or 71 percent,. Whites make up the most hospitalizations while latinos and Blacks have slightly less, according to VDH data.
For Virginia deaths, people 80 or older (1,289) account for nearly half of all deaths. Whites (1,435) are disproportionately dying compared to other races such as Blacks (688) or Latinos (281). Additionally, COVID-19 deaths are essentially the same between females and males, separated by 84 deaths, according to the VDH dashboard.
When comparing case counts, deaths and hospitalizations of Virginia localities, the general understanding that COVID-19 has a greater impact on more densely-populated, urban areas than rural parts follows suit for the most part.
Some of the Virginia localities and cities with the highest COVID case counts include Alexandria (2,165), Chesapeake (3,899), Chesterfield (5,251), Henrico (4,757), Loudoun (6,166), Richmond City (4,099), Virginia Beach (6,183), Prince William (11,125) and Fairfax (18,876), according to the VDH.
Localities like Norton (27), Surry (86), Giles (58) and Middlesex (61) represent some of the lowest case counts.
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Jacob Taylor is a reporter at The Virginia Star and the Star News Digital Network. Follow Jacob on Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
