Patient Safety | 05.28.21
COVID-19 Hospital Patients Tend to Be Younger Now
by Wall Street Journal
National data indicates that COVID-19 patients ending up in U.S. hospitals are now tending to skew 50 or younger. Health officials said this trend is unsurprising, given older Americans are being vaccinated at higher rates. However, they worry that stagnating immunization rates among younger Americans could delay the pandemic's end, while others fear that new and possibly deadlier variants are putting more younger people in hospitals. Americans 65 and older currently make up 28.5 percent of hospitalizations -- a 24.5 percent decline from January -- while the proportion of COVID-19 patients between 18 and 49 surged. That demographic presently accounts for 36 percent of hospitalizations, a 15.5 percent spike. Patients 50 to 64 years old have increased 7.1 percent to constitute 32.4 percent of hospitalizations. "I think the real story here is that vaccines work," said MaineHealth Chief Medical Officer Joan Boomsma.
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