Age Structure Charts, July 21, Raw Numbers

Same story throughout the epidemic–cases cluster in the younger groups and hosps and deaths in the older ones.

Dave’s notes:

1. These age structure charts display the number of Covid cases, ICU hospital admissions, non-ICU hospital admissions, and deaths in Minnesota each week, sorted by age group. These are an update of last week’s charts published here: https://healthy-skeptic.com/2022/07/20/age-structure-charts-july-14-raw-numbers/ .
2. The data for the charts on cases comes from the data file “cage.csv”, Case Rate by Age Group, published by the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) here: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/stats/case.html. The link to the data file is located in the notes under the graphic “Case Rate by Age Group”. Similarly, the data for hospital admissions is taken from the data file “hage.csv”, Hospitalization Rate by Age Group available here: https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/stats/hosp.html . The data in this data file is plotted without modification except that we are taking the difference between total hospital admissions and ICU admissions in order to display non-ICU admissions. Finally, the data for deaths is taken from the data file “dage.csv”, Mortality Rate by Age Group, available here” https://www.health.state.mn.us/diseases/coronavirus/stats/death.html.
3. Fig. 1 and 2: Covid Cases Per Week. The reported Covid cases appear to be levelling out at relatively elevated rates, compared to past surges. It would be logical to expect to drop to levels similar to last summer, given the higher vaccination and booster rates this year, and higher rates of prior infection this year. MDH no longer publishes data on reinfections, and has not fulfilled our request for reinfection data for several months, so we are unable to determine if some of the higher numbers of cases is due to higher levels of reinfection.
4. Fig. 3 and 4: ICU Covid Admissions Per Week. The main feature of note is the sharp increase in ICU admissions for the 18-49 age group over the last 2 weeks, while all the other age groups are relatively stable. Note in Fig. 2 that there is not a corresponding increase in cases in the 18-49 age group. It is possible that some of this increase is due to incidental positive tests for people admitted for other reasons.
5. Fig. 5 and 6: Non-ICU Covid Admissions Per Week. All age groups are relatively similar to the prior several weeks. Note that there is no significant increase in non-ICU admissions for the 18-49 age group, in contrast to the ICU admissions for this age group.
6. Fig. 7 and 8: Covid Deaths Per Week. Deaths continue to gradually decline, with only relatively minor revisions to last week’s data.