Not good news – but what did you expect?
The numbers below show that new deaths are very
slowly falling. The reason for this is easily found in the ratio of deaths to
closed cases, which continues to fall – indicating that treatments are steadily
improving.
And the slow fall in new deaths definitely can’t be
attributed to new cases falling, since yesterday’s new cases number was the
highest since July 30. We’re definitely on a new upward trend in new cases,
even though that figure never got anywhere close to the figure that would allow
us to get the virus under control with widespread testing, contact tracing and
mask wearing – even if these were at all likely to happen in the near term.
The outlook for this fall isn’t good at all, since
the cool weather will just increase indoor gatherings. And since the GOP is too
focused on confirming a Supreme Court Justice who will vote to overturn Roe v.
Wade and the Affordable Care Act, to pass a bill that will fund a real national
testing and contact tracing effort, the dispirited, uncoordinated government
response to the virus will likely continue through January 20.
Dr. Fauci just recommended we forget about family
gatherings on Thanksgiving. Thanks again, Donald! You’ve certainly made America
great again.
The numbers
These numbers are updated
every day, based on reported US Covid-19 deaths the day before (taken from the
Worldometers.info site, where I’ve been getting my numbers all along). No other
variables go into the projected numbers – they are all projections based on
yesterday’s 7-day rate of increase in total Covid-19 deaths, which was 2.3%.
Note that the “accuracy”
of the projected numbers diminishes greatly after 3-4 weeks. This is because,
up until 3-4 weeks, deaths could in theory be predicted very accurately, if one
knew the real number of cases. In other words, the people who are going to die
in the next 3-4 weeks of Covid-19 are already sick with the disease, even
though they may not know it yet. But this means that the trend in deaths should
be some indicator of the level of infection 3-4 weeks previous.
However, once we get
beyond 3-4 weeks, deaths become more and more dependent on policies and
practices that are put in place – or removed, as is more the case nowadays -
after today (as well as other factors like the widespread availability of an
effective treatment, if not a real “cure”). Yet I still think there’s value in
just trending out the current rate of increase in deaths, since it gives some
indication of what will happen in the near term if there are no significant
intervening changes.
Week ending |
Deaths reported during week/month |
Avg. deaths per day during
week/month |
Deaths as percentage of previous month’s |
March 7 |
18 |
3 |
|
March 14 |
38 |
5 |
|
March 21 |
244 |
35 |
|
March 28 |
1,928 |
275 |
|
Month of March |
4,058 |
131 |
|
April 4 |
6,225 |
889 |
|
April 11 |
12,126 |
1,732 |
|
April 18 |
18,434 |
2,633 |
|
April 25 |
15,251 |
2,179 |
|
Month of April |
59,812 |
1,994 |
1,474% |
May 2 |
13,183 |
1,883 |
|
May 9 |
12,592 |
1,799 |
|
May 16 |
10,073 |
1,439 |
|
May 23 |
8,570 |
1,224 |
|
May 30 |
6,874 |
982 |
|
Month of May |
42,327 |
1,365 |
71% |
June 6 |
6,544 |
935 |
|
June 13 |
5,427 |
775 |
|
June 20 |
4,457 |
637 |
|
June 27 |
6,167 |
881 |
|
Month of June |
23,925 |
798 |
57% |
July 4 |
4,166 |
595 |
|
July 11 |
5,087 |
727 |
|
July 18 |
5,476 |
782 |
|
July 25 |
6,971 |
996 |
|
Month of July |
26,649 |
860 |
111% |
August 1 |
8,069 |
1,153 |
|
August 8 |
7,153 |
1,022 |
|
August 15 |
7,556 |
1,079 |
|
August 22 |
7,552 |
1,079 |
|
August 29 |
6,675 |
954 |
|
Month
of August |
30,970 |
999 |
116% |
September 5 |
5,961 |
852 |
|
September 12 |
5,310 |
759 |
|
September 19 |
5,696 |
814 |
|
September 26 |
5,353 |
765 |
|
Month of Sept. |
22,809 |
760 |
75% |
October 3 |
5,102 |
729 |
|
October 10 |
5,091 |
727 |
|
October 17 |
5,016 |
717 |
|
October 24 |
5,131 |
733 |
|
October 31 |
5,248 |
750 |
|
Month of Oct. |
22,454 |
724 |
98% |
|
233,004 |
|
|
Red = projected
numbers
I. Total deaths
Total US deaths as of
yesterday: 222,717
Deaths reported yesterday:
874
Percent increase in total
deaths in the last seven days: 2.3% (This number is used to project deaths
in the table above. There is a 7-day cycle in the reported deaths numbers,
caused by lack of reporting over the weekends from closed state offices. So this
is the only reliable indicator of a trend in deaths, not the three-day percent
increase I used to focus on, and certainly not the one-day percent increase,
which mainly reflects where we are in the 7-day cycle).
II. Total reported cases
Total US reported cases: 8,216,315
Increase in reported cases
since previous day: 66,129
Percent increase in reported
cases in the last seven days: 4.9%
III. Deaths as a percentage of closed cases so far in the US:
Total Recoveries in US as
of yesterday: 5,320,386
Total Deaths as of yesterday:
222,717
Deaths so far as
percentage of closed cases (=deaths + recoveries): 4.0%
For a discussion of what this
number means – and why it’s so important – see this post. Short
answer: If this percentage declines, that’s good. It’s been steadily declining since
a high of 41% at the end of March. But a good number would be 2%, like South
Korea’s. An OK number would be 4%, like China’s.
IV. 7-day average of
test positive rate for US: 5.2%
For comparison, the recent peak for this rate was 27% in
late July, although the peak in late March was 75%. This is published by Johns
Hopkins. As of 10/2, rate for New York state: 1.2%. For Texas: 6.0%. For
Florida: 10.9%. For Arizona: 6.2%. For
California: 2.8%).
I would love to hear any comments or questions you have
on this post. Drop me an email at tom@tomalrich.com
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