US has more daily deaths with omicron than with delta

Omicron, the new variant of the coronavirus that spreads throughout U.S, causes more daily deaths in the country than during the wave of the delta variant last fall, and deaths are likely to continue to rise for days or even weeks.

The seven-day daily average of deaths from COVID-19 in U.S it has been on the rise since mid-November, reaching 2,267 on Thursday, up from a peak of 2,100 in September, when the delta variant was dominant.

Omicron is now presumed to account for nearly all cases in the country, and while it causes less severe illness in most people, the fact that it is more transmissible means more people get sick.

“Ómicron will take us beyond the million deaths”, said Andrew Noymer, a professor of public health at the University of California, Irvine campus. “That will cause a lot of introspection. There will be a lot of discussion about what we could have done differently, how many deaths were preventable.”

The symptoms of omicron are usually milder, and some infected people show no symptoms, the researchers agree. But like the flu, it can be deadly, especially for older people, people with other health problems, or those who aren’t vaccinated.

“The most important thing is that ‘milder’ does not mean ‘mild’”Dr. Rochelle Walenskey, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said this week at a White House news conference.

Until recently, Chuck Culotta was a healthy adult who ran a pressure washer company in Milford, Delaware. As the wave of omicron swept through the Northeast, he first felt symptoms before Christmas and tested positive on Christmas Day. He died less than a week later, on December 31, nine days before his 51st birthday.

He was not vaccinated, his brother Todd said, because he had concerns about the long-term effects of the vaccine.

“I just wasn’t sure it was the right thing to do, yet,” said Todd Culotta, who got vaccinated in the summer.

At an urban hospital in Kansas, 50 COVID-19 patients have died this month and more than 200 are being treated. The University of Kansas Hospital in Kansas City, Kansas, posted video from its morgue showing bodies bagged in a refrigerated unit and a worker writing “COVID” in a white body bag.

“This is real”said Ciara Wright, the hospital’s deceased affairs coordinator. “Our concerns are: ‘Will the funeral homes get here fast enough?’ We have access to a refrigerated truck. We don’t want to use it if it’s not necessary.”

With more than 878,000 deaths, U.S it has the most COVID-19 deaths of any country.

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