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Volume 30, Number 6—June 2024
Research

Estimates of SARS-CoV-2 Hospitalization and Fatality Rates in the Prevaccination Period, United States

Isabel GriffinComments to Author , Jessica King1, B. Casey Lyons1, Alyson L. Singleton1, Xidong Deng, Beau B. Bruce, and Patricia M. Griffin
Author affiliations: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Atlanta, Georgia, USA (I. Griffin, J. King, B.C. Lyons, X. Deng, B.B. Bruce, P.M. Griffin); Oak Ridge Institute for Science and Education, Oak Ridge, Tennessee, USA (A.L. Singleton)

Main Article

Table 2

Demographic and clinical characteristics of SARS-CoV-2 infections that met inclusion criteria for case fatality rate analysis, United States, 2020*

Characteristic Includes cases for which death status was not known, counted as live
 Includes only cases for which death status was known
No. deaths No. cases Case-fatality rate, % No. deaths No. cases Case-fatality rate, %
Overall
 78,663
 4,708,444
 1.7
78,663
 3,952,311
 2.0
Sex
M 42,184 2,230,579 1.9 42,184 1,871,418 2.3
F 36,330 2,452,617 1.5 36,330 2,058,984 1.8
Other 0 45 0 0 42 0
Missing† 54 4,822 1.1 54 4,444 1.2
Unknown
 95
 20,381
 0.5
95
 17,423
 0.6
Age group, y
<1 10 21,331 0.05 10 18,694 0.05
1–4‡ 7 66,098 0.01 7 58,590 0.01
5–14‡ 15 270,467 0.01 15 233,021 0.01
15–24 175 864,837 0.02 175 717,778 0.02
25–34 571 849,838 0.06 571 717,833 0.08
35–44 1,290 717,446 0.2 1,290 605,432 0.2
45–54 3,390 687,837 0.5 3,390 576,674 0.6
55–64 8,701 589,496 1.5 8,701 488,624 1.8
65–74 16,197 341,936 4.7 16,197 283,996 5.7
75–84 21,689 180,869 12.0 21,689 150,871 14.4
>85 26,614 112,566 23.6 26,614 95,515 27.9
Missing†
 4
 5,723
 0.06
4
 5,283
 0.08
Race and ethnicity§¶
AI or AN, NH 591 30,312 2.0 591 24,687 2.4
Asian or PI, NH 2,847 96,073 3.0 2,847 86,842 3.3
AA or Black, NH 6,529 230,117 2.8 6,529 204,784 3.2
Hispanic 2,694 347,365 0.8 2,694 282,684 1.0
Other or multiple races, NH 2,270 148,408 1.5 2,270 133,038 1.7
White, NH 41,451 1,512,389 2.7 41,451 1,207,934 3.4
Unknown
 22,281
 2,343,780
 1.0
22,281
 2,012,342
 1.1
Hospitalized#
Yes 45,328 257,208 17.6 45,328 235,206 19.3
No 13,133 2,182,361 0.6 13,133 1,982,656 0.7
Unknown 9,809 1,116,549 0.9 9,809 652,037 1.5
Missing
 10,393
 1,152,326
 0.9
10,393
 1,082,412
 1.0
Hospitalized or ICU**
Hospitalized in ICU 13,906 31,461 44.2 13,906 30,122 46.2
Hospitalized, not ICU 31,497 226,235 13.9 31,497 205,428 15.3
Not hospitalized 13,058 2,181,873 0.6 13,058 1,982,312 0.7
Unknown
 20,202
 2,268,875
 0.9
20,202
 1,734,449
 1.2
Symptom status
Symptomatic 43,395 2,537,903 1.7 43,395 2,212,265 2.0
Asymptomatic 1,850 110,446 1.7 1,850 109,243 1.7
Missing† 12,504 814,456 1.5 12,504 672,665 1.9
Unknown 20,914 1,245,639 1.7 20,914 958,138 2.2

*Data from 22 jurisdictions that met the study inclusion criteria, Case Only Epi Task Force dataset, accessed March 17, 2021, based on responses to the CDC 2019 Novel Coronavirus Case Report Form during May 1–December 1, 2020 (Figure). Reports in which no response was provided about death were excluded from the rate calculation. AA, African American; AI, American Indian; AN, Alaska Native; NH, not Hispanic or Latino; ICU, intensive care unit; PI, Pacific Islander. †Missing indicates that the field was left blank. ‡Case-fatality rate was 0.0105%–0.0119% for 1–4 years age group and 0.0055%–0.0064% for 5–14 years age group. §Other or multiple races category includes NH persons whose race was reported as other or for whom >1 race was reported and persons whose record had both a racial designation and “racial information unknown” selected. The unknown category includes cases who have a known ethnicity of NH, but either unknown or missing race; have a known race but either unknown or missing ethnicity; or have both unknown or missing race and unknown or missing ethnicity. ¶The jurisdictions used for the fatality calculation had a greater percentage of Asian or PI, NH, persons and a smaller percentage of AA or Black, NH, persons than the US 2019 population. #Hospitalized status (yes or no) collected in a separate variable from “hospitalized or ICU” and numbers of hospitalized patients may not match. **Known to have been admitted to an ICU. The dataset contained separate variables for “hospitalized” and for “hospitalized in an ICU.” The 2 variables differed in the number not hospitalized and number hospitalized not in an ICU by <100 persons.

Main Article

1These authors contributed equally to this article.

Page created: May 02, 2024
Page updated: May 22, 2024
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