Hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the United States have increased by about 33% in the last week in the United States. The number of kills has also increased by around 40% and may be related to an old enemy, the Delta variant.
The alert is from the CDC (United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) and was issued this Wednesday (12).
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Covid-19 cases in the United States, driven by the rapidly spreading Omicron variant, are expected to peak in the coming weeks.
“The magnitude of this increase is largely related to the Ômicron variant, which now accounts for about 90% of Covid-19 cases in the country,” she told reporters.
Hospitalizations have been on the rise since late December, when Ômicron overtook the Delta variant as the dominant version of the coronavirus in the United States, although experts say Ômicron tends to be less deadly than previous variants.
The recent rise in Covid deaths is likely a lag effect of the Delta variant, which was on the rise before Omicron took hold in the United States in December, Walensky said.
With Delta and other earlier variants, deaths delayed infection rates by a few weeks.
“We may see deaths from Ômicron, but I suspect the deaths we are seeing now are still from Delta,” Walensky said, adding that it will take time to understand how Ômicron affects coronavirus death numbers.
Edited by Tim Ahmann and Bill Berkrot of Reuters
Reference: CNN Brasil
