Deaths From COVID-19 Spiked Over The Summer, Especially Among People 65
and Older, Before Dipping Again in September
While Overall COVID
Deaths Remain Much Lower Than Earlier in the Pandemic, The Share Dying
Who Are 65 Or Older (88%) Is The Highest Yet
Although
COVID-19 fatalities remain much lower than during the peak of last
winter’s Omicron surge, deaths among people 65 and older spiked over the
summer, more than doubling between April and July 2022, finds a new KFF
analysis. The number of deaths topped more than 11,000 people
65 and older in both July and August.
For people younger than
65, deaths have increased more slowly since April, rising by 52 percent
to about 1,900 in both July and August 2022. While COVID-19 deaths began
declining again in September, they remained higher for those ages 65 and
older compared to levels in April and May. For those younger than 65,
deaths dropped below April levels.
The numbers illustrate
that, despite the determination of many Americans to move on and resume
normal activities, COVID-19 continues to exact a toll, especially among
older adults. As of the week ending October 1, 2022, the United States
had lost nearly 1.1 million lives to COVID-19, including about 790,000
people ages 65 and older. Although people 65 and older are 16 percent of
the country’s population, they account for 75 percent of all COVID deaths
to date.
In fact, since the
summer of 2021, COVID deaths among people 65 and older have been growing
as a share of all deaths. The nearly 7,100 deaths among this age group in
September of 2022 accounted for 88 percent of all COVID deaths that month
– the highest share since the pandemic began. (The absolute number of
monthly COVID deaths in this age group peaked at more than 85,000 in
January 2021.) The new analysis contains detailed data on the number and
share of COVID-19 deaths by age in each month of the pandemic.
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