The Road goes ever on and on ... Day 141 (641)

Some of the news seems more of the same today. Delta is still surging in the US and France even as both prepare for the Omicron surge they know is coming. Britain is in the throes of such a surge; there were 78,610 new cases Wednesday and 88,376 new cases Thursday. Different, though, is that Nepal wants vaccine shipments slowed as they are running out of cold storage space. I have to admit that when I see "Nepal," I think of Mt. Everest and wonder why they don't just store the vaccine outside the back door given how cold it must be there. Finally, to complicate things even more, flu cases are starting to increase in various countries.

The covid case numbers for states are going nowhere but up. Connecticut and Maine saw increases of 45 percent or greater over the past two weeks; Maine had a 49 percent increase. Rhode Island and Wisconsin had increases between 30 and 45 percent. Showing increases between 15 and 30 percent were New Hampshire, New York, Massachusetts, Delaware, the District of Columbia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, and Kansas. Some states did go down a wee bit: Alaska, Montana, North Dakota, Utah, Wyoming, South Dakota, Colorado, and New Mexico. The states not listed saw increases of up to 15 percent. 

The US is now averaging 122,000 new cases per day, a slight increase over a week ago and a 41 percent increase over two weeks ago. Deaths are averaging 1,300 per day. Michigan has the most cases per capita followed by Montana, Arizona, Kentucky, and Wisconsin. The vaccination rate in the US is, unfortunately holding steady. According to the CDC, over 40 percent of Americans are not fully vaccinated. As an aside, 49 percent of Americans hear "fully vaccinated" and think two doses of Pfizer or Moderna or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The other 51 percent hear "fully vaccinated" and think of the above plus a booster. According to the CDC, 27 percent of Americans including 52 percent of senior citizens, have gotten boosters. 

Given that many hospitals are near capacity with patients infected with the Delta variant and hospital staff members are dealing with PTSD or burnout, the expected Omicron surge is very definitely not a good thing. Three percent of covid cases in the US are Omicron, as are 13 percent of cases in the New York and New Jersey region. Both the National Hockey League and the National Basketball Association are postponing games because of the number of players out with covid. The National Football League has yet to do anything about upcoming games but is in the midst of its worst surge since the start of the pandemic. 

In terms of those hospitals at or near capacity, have you thought at how much they cost when it comes to treating covid? Complex hospitalizations range from an average of $49,127 in Maryland to an average of $128,650 in New Jersey. Average costs for non-complex hospitalizations range from $12,531 in Maryland to $44,239 in Alaska. Finally, average outpatient treatment costs range from $580 in Maryland to $1,538 in Nevada. The lesson here? Try to have a mild case that can be treated on an outpatient basis, and if you can, relocate to Maryland.