Early data on severe outcomes from COVID in the US
This report is from the CDC, published March 18th. It includes data on 4,226 COVID-19 cases in the United States from Feb 12-March 16, although things are moving so quickly that the CDC reports 15,219 cases as of March 20th, 2020 and the NY Times is reporting 24,300 cases nationwide today. Consistent with reports from other areas of the world, age is a significant risk factor for severe disease. Younger adults are much less likely to have severe disease, but serious outcomes are possible. A case fatality rate of 1.8–3.4% depending on age is also consistent with data from other regions, although it’s also important to realize we don’t have full follow up time for the more recent cases to know how things turned out. This report did not include data on other conditions these patients had.
