According to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, older adults have accounted for nearly two-thirds of Covid-19 hospitalizations in the United States this year, posing “an ongoing public health threat.”
From January through August, adults 65 and older accounted for about 63 percent of H1N1 hospitalizations, 61 percent of intensive care unit stays and 88 percent of hospital deaths related to H1N1, according to the report released Friday by the CDC.
Most of the hospitalized older adults had underlying health conditions, such as diabetes or kidney disease, and less than a quarter – just 23.5% – had received the then-recommended bivalent vaccine.
CoV-19 hospitalizations “continue to predominantly involve adults 65 years of age and older,” and people in that age group “should reduce their risk for severe CoV-19 by receiving the recommended CoV-19 vaccine, taking measures to reduce the risk of contracting CoV-19, and seeking prompt outpatient antiviral treatment after a positive SARS-CoV-2 test result,” the researchers wrote.
The researchers, from the CDC and other U.S. institutions, analyzed data from the CDC’s Covid-19 Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network (COVID-NET), looking at hospitalization rates among people who tested positive for Covid-19 during or within two weeks before becoming hospitalized.
The data showed that from January to June, Covid-19 hospitalization rates declined among all adults, but remained elevated among adults 65 years and older.