The CDC said 236 U.S. counties, including the District of Columbia, Guam and the municipalities of Puerto Rico, had a “high” rate of new COVID-19 hospitalizations at 20 per 100,000 people in the week ending Dec. 23. Or higher. Daniels and Sheridan counties in Montana reported the highest rates at 120 per 100,000, six times the CDC’s “high” threshold. Additionally, 993 counties reported an “average” COVID-19 hospitalization rate of 10.0 to 19.9 per 100,000 people.
Specifically, CDC county hospitalization rates are calculated at the health service area level, which may span multiple counties. This means counties within the same HSA will share the same admission rates in the data. Areas also may be listed as having insufficient data.
The counties with the highest rates of COVID-19 hospital admissions per 100,000 people:
Daniels County, Montana (120.0)
Sheridan County, Montana (120.0)
Ness County, Kansas (72.7)
Nemaha County, Nebraska (71.7)
Merrick County, Nebraska (64.2)
Greeley County, Nebraska (64.2)
Howard County, Nebraska (64.2)
Hamilton County, Nebraska (64.2)
Hall County, Nebraska (64.2)
Cheyenne County, Kansas (57.8)
Rawlins County, Kansas (57.8)
Johnson County, Nebraska (47.4)
Otoe County, Nebraska (47.4)
McIntosh County, North Dakota (46.0)
Logan County, North Dakota (46.0)
LaMoure County, North Dakota (44.9)
Dickey County, North Dakota (44.9)
Wheeler County, Nebraska (44.4)
Valley County, Nebraska (44.4)
Thomas County, Nebraska (44.4)
Logan County, Nebraska (44.4)
Loup County, Nebraska (44.4)
Blaine County, Nebraska (44.4)
Garfield County, Nebraska (44.4)
Custer County, Nebraska (44.4)
Because hospitalization rates are calculated per 100,000 people, it’s worth noting that even a small number of hospitalizations can lead to a relatively high hospitalization rate for small communities. Yet the CDC also says its most recent COVID-19 hospitalization figures may be underestimated, as the data may have been impacted by the holidays and reporting delays.
Other measures also can give a sense of the current state of COVID-19. For example, though the CDC has ceased publishing a “community level” metric that incorporated COVID-19 case rates and hospital admissions – as well as the average percentage of hospital beds occupied by COVID-19 patients – participating health departments submit data from sampling and testing of wastewater for the virus to the CDC via the National Wastewater Surveillance System.
Since the U.S. passed 1 million cumulative deaths tied to COVID-19 in the spring of 2022, approximately 163,000 additional people have died in connection with the disease, according to provisional data from the CDC.
And while the latest tallies are well below the peak of around 26,000 deaths in a week in early 2021, data indicates more than 1,000 people each week have been dying in connection with COVID-19 as of late. In Maine, 6.3% of the state’s total deaths were due to COVID-19 during the week ending Dec. 23, according to provisional data, with an additional 13 states seeing attributable shares higher than the national percentage of 3.3%
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