This July 4th, COVID is still killing hundreds of Americans every day

Summer in America right now – in relation to the coronavirus – means many infections but relatively few deaths compared to previous versions of the virus, officials quoted by the Associated Press said.

COVID-19 is still killing hundreds of Americans every day — yet the virus is nowhere near as deadly as it was last fall and winter.

“It’s going to be a good summer and we deserve this break,” Ali Mokdad, a professor of health metrics at the University of Washington in Seattle, told AP.

With more and more Americans protected from serious diseases by vaccination and infection, COVID-19 has become — at least for now — an uncomfortable, uncomfortable nuisance for many.

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“It’s like a bad cold or the flu,” said a woman in Massachusetts recently.

She also said, “If I get it, I get it — and I’ll get over it.” She was double-vaccinated and boosted against COVID, she said.

Depending on their location, many Americans still wear masks when entering grocery stores or visiting other public places, even though the stores or venues may not require them. Many also mask themselves outdoors when they are among large crowds.

Some shops also still require masking to enter.

Still other Americans want nothing to do with masks at this point.

dr Dan Kaul, an infectious disease specialist at the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor, told the AP that things “feel cautiously good right now.”

“For the first time I can remember, pretty much since the beginning, we haven’t [coronavirus] Patients in intensive care,” he said.

As the nation celebrates July 4th this year, the average number of daily deaths from COVID-19 in the US is about 360.

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Last year, during a similar summer break, that number was around 228 per day in early July.

This remains the lowest threshold in daily U.S. deaths since March 2020, when the virus first spread across the U.S

Now in the third year of the pandemic, it’s easy to feel confused by the mixed picture.

But last year far fewer cases were reported at this time – fewer than 20,000 a day.

Now it’s about 109,000 – and likely an undercount given that home tests aren’t routinely reported.

Now in the third year of the pandemic, it’s easy to feel confused by the mixed picture: Repeat infections are becoming increasingly likely, the AP reported, and a sizeable proportion of those infected will face the lingering symptoms of what has been dubbed the long COVID has become known -19.

But many worries are now alleviated.

“We’re at a point now where everyone’s immune system has seen either the virus or the vaccine two or three times so far,” said Dr. David Dowdy, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, told AP.

“What we’re seeing is that, on average, people are getting less and less sick,” Dowdy said.

Up to 8 in 10 people in the US have been infected at least once, according to an influential model, the AP pointed out.

Big differences separate the flu from COVID-19. Health experts continue to be surprised at the behavior of the coronavirus.

Recently, the death rate for COVID-19 has been a moving target. It has now fallen into the range of an average flu season, according to data analyzed by Arizona State University health industry researcher Mara Aspinall.

At first, some people said the coronavirus was no more deadly than the flu — “and that wasn’t true for a long time,” Aspinall said.

Back then, people didn’t have immunity. The treatments were experimental — and vaccines weren’t yet mass-available.

Aspinall said the built-up immunity has reduced the death rate today to a solid level in the range of a typical flu season. (Over the past decade, the mortality rate for the flu has been around 5% to 13% of hospitalized patients.)

Big differences separate the flu from COVID-19. Health experts continue to be surprised at the behavior of the coronavirus. It’s also unclear whether it will settle into a flu-like seasonal pattern.

Last summer — when vaccines first became widely available in the US — the US suffered the delta surge and then Omicron, which peaked last February and claimed the lives of 2,600 Americans a day, the AP reported.

The fast-spreading omicron subtypes BA.4 and BA.5 could also contribute to a change in the number of deaths, experts said.

Experts agree that it is possible for a new variant to emerge and be able to escape the built-up immunity of the population. The rapidly spreading omicron subtypes BA.4 and BA.5 can also contribute to a change in the number of deaths.

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Deaths could increase in many states over the next few weeks, but deaths in the US as a whole are likely to fall slightly, said Nicholas Reich, who works with the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

“We have seen COVID hospitalizations increase from just over 1,000 in early April to around 5,000 new admissions per day. But deaths from COVID have increased only slightly over the same period,” said Reich, a professor of biostatistics at the University of Massachusetts Amherst.

Unvaccinated people are six times more likely to die from COVID-19 than people with at least one first shot, the CDC estimated based on available April data.

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Consider your own vulnerability and that of those around you this summer, especially at large gatherings, because the virus is spreading so quickly, Hopkins’ Dowdy said.

“There are still people who are very vulnerable,” he said.

However, many vaccinated Americans avoid another booster shot.

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“I’ve been double vaccinated and boosted once,” a New Yorker told Fox News Digital. “That’s enough. No more boosters for me.”

He also pointed out that in his “civilian” opinion (he’s not a doctor), it’s entirely possible that those dying from COVID today had pre-existing conditions or other complications.

The Associated Press contributed coverage to this article.