Healthcare Economics
The growth of the COVID-19 pandemic has slowed in the US. New confirmed cases rose by more than 200,000 a month ago. Yesterday, they rose by 64,375 to 28,325,091, which is 25% of the world total. Deaths in the US rose by 4,000 many days a month ago. Yesterday, it rose by 1,660 to 502,493, about 20% of the world total. However, many public health scientists and experts are concerned that new variants of the disease could spread faster and be more lethal. Three of these are now in the US. And as the number of people infected by this increases, there may be a race with the vaccination rate to prevent another surge.
Scientists, medical experts and the media use different ways to measure the distribution and presence of COVID-19. Among them are a raw number of confirmed cases, recovered cases, fatal cases and hospitalizations. The other is to measure cases and deaths per 100,000 people. It enables experts to make comparisons between provinces and states, regardless of population size.
Based on this figure per 100,000, Kansas with the most deaths is 1.23, averaging over the past seven days. At the other end of the spectrum, Hawaii is at .05. Among the Kansas counties, Scott County was hit hardest at 14.81, nearly twice the figure for the next highest county in the state by the same measure.
Scott County is located in the mid-western part of the state, in the direction of the Colorado border. The capital is Scott City. The province has 4,823 inhabitants, based on a US census estimate for 2019. This is a decrease of 2.3% compared to 2010.
Nearly 78% of people living in Scott County are white. Another 18% are Spanish. The average household income in Scott County is $ 65,417, which is slightly below the national average. The poverty rate, 7.9%, is much lower than the US figure.
As is the case in almost every state in the state, figures for COVID-19 infections and deaths in Kansas have dropped. Confirmed cases are 294,010 and rose a modest 141 yesterday. Over the past few weeks, the increases have been more than 2,000 per day. Fatalities in the state stand at 4,614 and did not rise yesterday. The daily increase in fatalities was twice over 100 in the past month.
Kansas, like every other state, is in a race. At least three new varieties are in the U.S. and one is spreading almost certainly faster than Americans have infected in the past year. The statistics for the rate at which Kansas vaccinated its adult population are in the lower half of all states at 12% compared to the national average of 13%.
Eventually, most of the disease will move from Scott County to elsewhere in the U.S. as for a year. Meanwhile, the country has to deal with the horrific mortality of COVID-19.
Click here to read these are the most dangerous cities in the US for COVID-19
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