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WaPo:

U.S. hospitalizations rise, driven by surges in four states

Covid-19 hospitalizations are rising in the United States, driven by surges in four states that represent nearly half the increase nationwide.

Overall, the seven-day average number of people hospitalized with covid-19 has risen by nearly 12,000, or 29 percent, since Nov. 10, when about 40,000 covid patients were hospitalized, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. On Dec. 5, an average of about 52,000 were hospitalized.

During that time frame, Michigan’s covid hospitalizations rose by nearly 1,900, CDC data shows, marking the highest figure for a single state. Hospitalizations also went up by more than 1,400 patients each in Ohio and Pennsylvania and by more than 900 in Indiana. The four states, which have some of the highest per capita current hospitalization numbers in the United States, are responsible for almost half of the country’s increase in covid hospitalizations between Nov. 10 and Dec. 5.

Coronavirus cases, driven by the delta variant, have also been rising since late October. A rise in hospitalizations tends to follow a rise in new cases by a couple of weeks. At the pandemic’s peak in January, U.S. hospitalizations reached nearly 128,000.

Here’s what to know

• Early data from Pfizer and BioNTech suggests that two shots of their vaccine may not be sufficient to prevent infection from omicron and booster doses will be critical.
• The pandemic has made an already brewing youth mental health crisis worse, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek H. Murthy wrote in an advisory published Tuesday.
• Anthony S. Fauci, the nation’s top infectious-disease expert, said Tuesday that the omicron variant appears to cause less severe illness — although he cautioned that the available data remains preliminary and anecdotal.