Deaths across America spiked as Covid-19 began its spread, and many were never attributed to the new coronavirus, researchers reported Monday.
“Notable increases” in deaths were seen in March and early April, the team led by the Yale School of Public Health found. This was especially true in New York and New Jersey, states hard-hit by the pandemic.
The study was first reported by the Washington Post.
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Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the team found about 15,000 excess deaths from March 1 to April 4. During the same time, states reported 8,000 deaths from Covid-19. “That is close to double,” Dan Weinberger, who studies the epidemiology of infectious diseases at Yale, told CNN.
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The team could not show whether the increased deaths were due to coronavirus, Weinberger said. But there are strong indications that they were. For instance, the team also looked at data on doctor visits.
“What we see is that in many states, you see an increase in influenza-like illnesses, and then a week or two later, you see an increase in deaths due to pneumonia and influenza,” Weinberger said. “It provides some confirmation that what we are seeing is related to coronavirus.”
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Plus, in especially hard-hit states such as New York and New Jersey, where coronavirus is known to have spread widely and infected many people, overall deaths were far in excess in what would normally have been expected in March.
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Article URL : https://edition.cnn.com/2020/04/27/health/deaths-spike-covid-spread/index.html