The current state of the COVID-19 pandemic is hard to summarize as I sit here today. Worldwide, COVID-19 cases passed the 100 million mark on Tuesday, although the actual number of cases is likely higher given the lack of testing in some countries. To put this in perspective, global cases reached 25 million in August and doubled to 50 million in November.
So, even though the holiday spike in new cases seems to be behind us, the sheer magnitude of infections, combined with worries over new strains being more contagious and potentially more deadly, mean we need to do even more to slow the spread.
Record deaths in January
Here in San Diego, county officials reported yesterday that January is already the deadliest month so far, and we still have three days left. So far, 751 lives were lost to COVID-19 in January, compared to 668 in December.
This has overwhelmed local funeral homes and hospital morgues, requiring the county to provide refrigerated semitrucks to handle the overflow of about 150 bodies so far. Health officials were prepared for this because they know when people let their guards down, especially around holidays, cases go up, then hospitalizations and then deaths. Knowing it is one thing; seeing it play out is another. It’s just heartbreaking.
Following the holidays, case rates are starting to go down again, but as you can see by the charts below, deaths continue to increase even as cases decrease because of the lag time between catching COVID-19 and dying from it. Only a very small percentage of people with COVID-19 die from it, but daily new cases remain in the thousands. We need to bring these numbers down.
