US sets record for COVID-19 deaths for third week, hospitalizations drop



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FILE PHOTO: Patients are held in the hallway as St. Mary’s Medical Center uses tents outside to manage the overflow at its 200-bed hospital in Apple Valley, California, United States January 12, 2021 . REUTERS / Mike Blake

(Reuters) – The United States lost more than 23,000 lives to COVID-19 last week, setting a record for the third week in a row, although the number of new infections and the number of hospital patients both declined compared to the previous seven days.

The country reported more than 1.5 million new cases of COVID-19 in the week ended January 17, down 12% from the previous week, and only eight out of 50 states posted an increase in new infections, according to a Reuters state analysis. and county reports.

(Open tmsnrt.rs/2WTOZDR in an external browser to see an associated graphic)

The average number of COVID-19 patients in hospitals fell 2% from the previous week to around 128,000, the first drop since October, according to a Reuters analysis of data from the COVID Tracking Project run by volunteers.

While some health officials have expressed concerns about a more contagious variant of the virus spreading in the United States, California Health and Human Services Secretary Dr Mark Ghaly has welcomed the fact that California hospitals were admitting 2,500 coronavirus patients every 24 hours, down from 3,500 per day.

Ghaly told reporters last week that this was “the biggest signal to me that things are starting to flatten out and potentially improve.”

Cumulatively, nearly 400,000 people have died from the novel coronavirus, or one in 822 U.S. residents. The country set a single-day record with 4,336 deaths reported on January 12, according to Reuters analysis of state and county reports. .

Alabama had the highest per capita death rate last week at 16 per 100,000 population, followed by Arizona at 15.5 per 100,000 population.

The United States set a record on January 15 with more than 2.2 million COVID-19 tests performed in a single day. Last week, 11% of tests came back positive for the virus, up from 13.3% the week before, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project. The highest positive test rates were in Iowa at 46%, Idaho at 40%, and Pennsylvania at 35%.

Graphic by Chris Canipe, written by Lisa Shumaker, edited by Tiffany Wu

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