Oct. 2, 2023 -- Hospitalizations for COVID-19 have dropped after about two months of increases, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported, though COVID-related deaths continue to go up.
For the week of Sept. 23, hospital admissions for COVID went down 3.1% from the previous week. Overall, 12 states saw substantial increase in hospitalizations (20% or more) while eight states reported a moderate increase (10% to 19.9%).
COVID-related deaths for the week ending Sept. 23 were 2.7% of all deaths, the CDC said. That’s an 8% increase over the previous week, but experts have said deaths are often a lagging indicator.
Overall, more than 1.1 million COVID-related deaths have been reported in the United States since the start of the pandemic.
Other metrics for COVID have also declined, the CDC reported.
Emergency department visits with COVID diagnoses went down 11.7% for the week of Sept. 23 from the previous week. Positive COVID test results dropped 1.1%.
Reports of COVID found in wastewater are also declining, according to the Biodot wastewater tracking network.
The CDC also reported its variant projections. The EG.5 variant now makes up about 29.4% of sequenced cases in the United States, and FL.1.5.1 makes up about 13.7%. HV.1 makes up 12.9%, an increase of about 8% over two weeks.