Reports Added during May 2022

May 2022 update on the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. The data is from May 1, 2022, as as sourced from Johns Hopkins University.

The Omicron BA.2 variant sent the case numbers higher in Utah during April. Case counts grew from 89 per week on March 25 to 242 per week on April 28. This mini-surge will likely continue for 3-4 weeks.

The death rate in Utah has declined to about 1 per day (7 per week).

The 7-day average new case rate climbed from 89 on March 31 to 242 on April 28. Utah only reports numbers on Thursdays. The unknown is how many positive home tests were not reported to the Utah Department of Health. We are experiencing the surge associated with the Omicron BA.2 varriant at this time. Rates should climb for another 2-3 weeks before declining. South Africa where Omicron started has detected two new Omicron variants denoted BA.4 and BA.5. South Africa says that prior Omicron infection will not prevent infection from BA.4 and BA.5 (ouch).

This month I analyzed the United States by individual state. Interestingly New England is the area with the most trouble right now. One thing is very clear, death rates have dropped to very low levels given all of the tools we have to defeat SARS-CoV-2.

The five states with the highest infection rates for the full pandemic are:

State	Percentage
Alaska	34.5%
Rhode Island	33.8%
North Dakota	30.9%
Kentucky	29.3%
Tennessee	29.3%

Utah stayed in 7th place on this list at 28.5%. Kentucky replaced South Carolina ithis list.

The five states with the lowest infection rate for the full pandemic are:

State	Percentage
Oregon	17.0%
Maryland	17.0%
Hawaii	17.1%
Maine	18.0%
Vermont	19.2%

The five states with the highest infection rates during the last 2 months.

State	Percent
Vermont	1.67%
New Hampshire	1.37%
Rhode Island	1.35%
New York	1.17%

All of these states are in New England.

The five states with the lowest infection rates for the last 2 months are:

State	Percentage
South Dakota	0.17%
Louisiana	0.19%
Nebraska	0.19%
Wyoming	0.19%
Montana	0.21%

Many of these states had huge case counts earlier in the pandemic.

States with the highest death rates (full pandemic) are:

State	Percentage
Pennsylvania	1.58%
Mississippi	1.56%
Oklahoma	1.53%%
Nevada	1.51%
Georgia	1.50%

States with the lowest death rates for the full pandemic.

State	Percentage
Utah	0.51%
Vermont	0.51%
Hawaii	0.57%
New Hampshire	0.80%
Washington	0.85%

States with the highest death rate for the past 2 months.

State	Percentage
Kentucky	0.03%
Arizona	0.03%
Nevada	0.03%
Oklahoma	0.03%

Statues with the lowest death rate for the last 2 months

Numerous states had rates of 0.02% or less.

Parts of Asia have been having an awful time with Omicron, especially South Korea where last month 6.6% of their population were infected by the SARS-CoV-2 virus. Other Asian nations I follow are doing better. Here are the number of infections during the last month: South Korea 3,401,433; Japan 1,70,611; Vietnam 937.244; China 777,151; Thailand 550,889. Taiwan continues to be among the best countries during the pandemic.

I've heard that people are doubting the data from India, and I am inclined to agree.

In Europe, Germany and France still have infection rates above 3.75%; elsewhere among Europen countries I follow things are much better.

The U.S had an infection rate of just 0.37% for the latest month, below every country in Europe excluding Russia and Sweden.

In Australia, where virus spread has been contained, during the last month it broke to an 8.1% infection rate, more than 1//3 of their total infection rate for the entire pandemic.

The number of infections continued to increase last week. There were 802 infections per day versus 643/day the prior week. This is the eighth consecutive week of an increased infection rate in Utah.

It is unclear how long the current surge will continue. The infection rate is high, but the springtime temperatures have been cooler than normal this year.

One hundred eight individuals are hospitalized for Covid-19, but ICU beds are still readily available in the state.

An Omicron subvariant now dominates in Utah.

The May 19th report from the Utah Department of Health showed another jump in daily cases to 642 per day from 484 per day. That is a larger rise than I was expecting, yet nothing close to the early winter months in 2020 when the delta variant drove cases above 2,000 per day.

There are over 100 patients with Covid-19 in Utah hospitals The good news is that there is no stress on the available ICU beds in the state.

Some good news here. The case count for the week ending 5-12-22 was up just slightly from 461 per day last week to 484 per day this week. I'm not sure if Governor Cox was included in this count or not. Also, the reported number of deaths for the last week was 1, which generates a seven-day moving average of 0.

Now the horrible news: In the United States of America, the death toll from Covid-19 has now exceeded 1 million dead! This is based on John Hopkins data. NBC called the 1 million mark last Sunday. I have no idea what data source they were using.

One million American lives lost to Covid-19 is far more than the total number of American lives lost in WWI, WWII, the War in Korea, the War in Vietnam, the Gulf Wars, and the war against terror combined.

Asia is still fighting the Omicron variant. South Korea has been the hardest hit of the Asian countries I follow. Japan had over 1,000,000 cases, with Vietnam, China, and Thailand over 500,000. during April.

The U.S. had an infection rate of only 0.37% in April, much of that being the Omicron BA2 variant. New England clearly had the highest rates of infection during April.

Death rates across the U.S. are meager owing to all the tools we now have to fight the disease. Utah is still the best in the nation with the death rate (0.51%), but three states are very close to our rate.