Weekly COVID Death Count Nears 12-Month High

The quiet COVID-19 wave that began in July is now pushing the number of COVID-related deaths reported by U.S. hospitals to the highest level recorded since the week ending Jan. 31, 2023.

Iowa hospitals have been bundling death reports in spurts that throw off the national figures. Excluding the Iowa results, the number of COVID-related deaths reported by U.S. hospitals to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services increased to 876 for the week ending Jan. 11.

That’s 15% higher than the comparable total reported for the week ending Jan. 4, and it’s 52% higher than the total reported four weeks earlier, for the week ending Dec. 13.

The new weekly COVID death figure is more than twice as high as the total reported for the week ending July 6, when the pandemic seemed to be ending.

What it means: So much for any thoughts of leaving COVID out of the mortality and life expectancy estimates embedded in life insurance planning and income planning arrangements.

In the states: In California, the state with the highest number of COVID-related deaths reported by hospitals, the count increased to 211 for the latest week, from 118 the previous week.

The number of COVID-related deaths increased to 111, from 79, in North Carolina, and to 93, from 70, in Florida.

All-cause mortality in 2023: Data reporting delays continue to affect a separate set of mortality figures, the all-cause death counts included in the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s weekly flu tracking reports.

But incomplete figures for all of 2023 show that the overall U.S. death count, for people of all ages from all causes, was at least about 3 million, or about 8.7% higher than the 2019 death total the CDC reported in mid-2020, before the COVID-19 pandemic had a noticeable effect on U.S. mortality.

Credit: Elise Amendola/AP