ALMOST every American who died of coronavirus had a pre-existing health condition, such as obesity or heart disease, a new report from the CDC has revealed. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing 94 per cent of Americans had other “health conditions and contributing causes”. “For 6 per cent of the deaths, […]
ALMOST every American who died of coronavirus had a pre-existing health condition, such as obesity or heart disease, a new report from the CDC has revealed.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention released data showing 94 per cent of Americans had other “health conditions and contributing causes”.
“For 6 per cent of the deaths, COVID-19 was the only cause mentioned,” the report reads.
The CDC listed a number of contributing medical conditions linked to coronavirus deaths, including diabetes, heart failure, renal failure and vascular and unspecified dementia.
Other conditions included obesity, renal failure and influenza and pneumonia.
“For deaths with conditions or causes in addition to COVID-19, on average, there were 2.6 additional conditions or causes per death,” the report said.
The statistics are based on death certificates, but the CDC notes that the provisional death counts may not match counts from county health departments and other sources, due to the time death certificates take to be completed.
As of Monday, the US has surpassed 6 million coronavirus cases and 183,000 deaths, Johns Hopkins University statistics show.
The country is far ahead of Brazil, which has the second-highest count at 3.8 million cases, and has more than the next six countries combined.
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention director Dr. Robert Redfield warned in June that the number of infected is likely an undercount, and for every case reported, there should be another 10 infections estimated.
The number of infections is also troubling news for health experts who expected August to be a relatively slow month in terms of people contracting COVID-19. But given recent spikes in the US, that hope has slowly diminished as the month wore on.
“August should have been a slow month. We should have seen infection levels come down in July and August,” former Food and Drug Administration commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb told CBS News Sunday.
“They didn’t. We saw an epidemic cross over the Sun Belt, and we saw infections actually increase,” he continued.
Although he pointed to a decline in case numbers and hospitalizations, he expects a huge spike this fall as schools attempt to reopen.
“As we head into September and October, kids back to school, people start to return to work, we’re likely to see infections start to go up again,” he said.
