The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have developed projections for incident cases, hospitalizations and deaths attributed to COVID for the period ending July 23rd.  New cases will increase from 92,000 per day to 122,000 corresponding to a rate of  37.4 cases per 100,000 population.  The seven-day average level of hospitalization for COVID will rise to 34,000, lower than the 150,000 recorded during the peak of the surge due to the emergence of the Omicron strain. Daily fatality due to COVID attained 389 on July 4th.  Projections of fatalities range from 200 to 650 deaths per day for the week ending July 23rd.

Studies conducted by the National Cancer Institute of the National Institutes of Health as published in JAMA Internal Medicine confirmed that between March 2020 and October 2021 COVID was the third leading cause of death in theU.S. accounting for 350,000 fatalities.

Among those 85 and older, COVID-19 was the second leading cause of death in 2020, but this dropped to third rank in 2021, attributed to targeted vaccination for this age group.

The study noted that COVID had an indirect effect on other causes of death including heart disease, stroke, and diabetes that all increased from 2019 through 2020.  This was due to patients avoiding medical care to prevent contracting COVID. There may be additional indirect long-term effects from COVID since many patients avoided regular cancer screening that may be reflected in future unnecessary fatalities.

Vaccinations and common sense hygiene precautions are still recommended to prevent COVID, both in the recreational and work situations.