The coronavirus pandemic continues to be a grave problem for those all around the world. It has been an especially serious illness to manage for individuals who have underlying conditions. According to a new report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), almost 90 percent of people who have been hospitalized for the coronavirus have had one or more underlying conditions.
It has long been reported that those with pre-existing conditions are particularly susceptible to the coronavirus. But, this new report from the CDC (obtained via Health.com) confirms that having these underlying conditions can seriously impact their battle with the illness. The CDC reported that there were several pre-existing conditions that they found in many patients suffering from the coronavirus, including hypertension (of which 49.7 percent suffered amongst those with the coronavirus), obesity (48.3 percent), chronic lung disease (34.6 percent), diabetes mellitus (28.3 percent), and cardiovascular disease (27.8 percent). To obtain this information, the CDC utilized data from 1,482 COVID-19 patients who were admitted between March 1 and March 30. They obtained the data from the following states: Utah, New Mexico, Tennessee, California, Colorado, Georgia, Iowa, Connecticut, Ohio, Maryland, New York, Michigan, Minnesota, and Oregon.
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The CDC’s study also included information about the ages of patients who have been hospitalized with the coronavirus. According to their findings, 75.6 percent of those who have been hospitalized due to the coronavirus have been age 50 or older. The highest rate was amongst those over the age of 65. They also shared that men have been disproportionately affected as 54.6 percent of those hospitalized were male. Additionally, African Americans have been disproportionately affected by the coronavirus, as the demographic represented 33 percent of hospitalizations even though they represented 18 percent of the population who were studied.
This new study comes as the Director of the CDC, Robert Redfield, recently warned that a second wave of coronavirus infections in the winter could be worse than the first. The death toll from the coronavirus in the United States has surpassed 40,000. His warning also comes as states across the country have been easing up on social distancing measures in an effort to jump-start the economy, despite the fact that this crisis is not yet under control.
“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Redfield told the Washington Post in report that was published Tuesday. “When I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean. We’re going to have a flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time.”
