COVID-19 hospitalisations tumble among US senior citizens

WASHINGTON (AP):

COVID-19 hospitalisations among older Americans have plunged 80 per cent since the start of the year, dramatic proof that the vaccination campaign is working. Now the trick is to get more of the nation’s younger people to roll up their sleeves.

The drop-off in severe cases among people 65 and older is so dramatic that the hospitalisation rate among this highly vaccinated group is now down to around the level of the next-youngest category, Americans 50 to 64.

That slide is especially encouraging because senior citizens have accounted for about eight out of 10 deaths from COVID-19 since the virus hit the United States.

Overall, COVID-19 deaths in the US have plummeted to about 700 per day on average, compared with a peak of over 3,400 in mid-January. All told, the scourge has killed about 570,000 Americans.

“What you’re seeing there is exactly what we hoped and wanted to see: As really high rates of vaccinations happen, hospitalisations and death rates come down,” said Jodie Guest, a public health researcher at Emory University.

The trends mirror what is happening in other countries with high vaccination rates, such as Israel and Britain, and stand in stark contrast to the worsening disaster in places like India and Brazil, which lag far behind in dispensing shots.