National COVID-19 Numbers Improve

A CDC line chart that shows weekly new COVID-19 case counts bobbing up and down since early December, then with many different directions going all over the place for the next weeks, with the most likely outcome the number of cases falling a bit.

Federal government COVID-19 pandemic trackers are telling White House and state officials that many pandemic intensity indicators improved last week.

The trackers, who are part of what's left of a Trump administration White House Coronavirus Task Force data team, have put the numbers in a new weekly report.

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President Joe Biden's administration is reorganizing federal pandemic management efforts. The tracking team has left out its usual list of observations and recommendations.

In place of the weekly notes, the team has included a statement indicating that, "The weekly State Profile Reports are currently under review. The format and content may change in coming reports."

The weekly reports have distilled current knowledge about COVID-19 trends that could shape benefits costs for every life and health product, including annuities, and efforts to ease pandemic-related social distancing rules.

One question is whether the new COVID-19 vaccination program will have any early effect on the pandemic intensity level.

Another is whether newly discovered strains, or "variants," of severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), the virus that causes COVID-19, will affect intensity levels.

The strains include a Midwest variant, that was first detected by researchers at Ohio State, as well as the United Kingdom's B.1.1.7 variant, Brazil's P.1 variant, and South Africa's B.1.351 strain.

Pandemic Tracking Data

The Biden administration's first weekly White House Coronavirus Task Force report includes several pages of state-level pandemic intensity data and some national data.

Here's what happened to some of the key national COVID-19 indicators between the week ending Jan. 15 and the week ending Jan. 22:

New Cases per 100,000 People: 381 (down from 478)
Percentage of People Tested Who Had COVID-19: 10.6% (down from 12.2%)
New COVID-19 Hospital Admissions per 100 Beds: 20 (down from 22)
COVID-19 Deaths per 100,000: 6.5 (down from 6.8)
Nursing Homes With 1 or More New Resident COVID-19 Deaths: 15% (down from 16%)

— Read White House Advisors Say U.S. May Have a Bad New COVID-19 Strain, on ThinkAdvisor.

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