COVID-19 Emergency Room Visits, Deaths On The Rise In The US

USA Today (7/2, Cuevas) reports, “More people are ending up in emergency rooms and dying in recent weeks from COVID-19, federal health data showed.” There was “a 23% increase in emergency department visits in the past week, according to CDC data posted on Monday. The data was taken from the week of June 22, the latest available data, which showed the weekly percentage of emergency room visits diagnosed as COVID-19 was at 0.9%.” Meanwhile, “deaths have jumped 14% in the past week.” CBS News (7/2, Tin) reports, “Levels of SARS-CoV-2 virus showing up in wastewater samples are climbing in most parts of the country, according to figures from the agency through June 27.” Nonetheless, around the country, “levels of the virus in wastewater are still ‘low,’ the CDC says. But across the West, preliminary figures from the most recent weeks show this key COVID-19 trend has now passed above the threshold that the agency considers to be ‘high’ levels of the virus.”