Deaths in every state of the United States are higher than they would be in a normal year, according to an analysis of estimates from the Center for Disease Control and Prevention.
The data show how the coronavirus pandemic, which is peaking in many states, is bringing with it unusual patterns of death, higher than the official totals of deaths that have been directly linked to the virus according to reports.
New York Times reports that deaths nationwide were 18 percent higher than normal from March 15 to Nov. 7.
Altogether, the analysis shows that 326,000 more people than normal have died in the United States during that period, a number that may be an undercount since recent death statistics are still being updated.
Our analysis examines deaths from all causes — not just confirmed cases of coronavirus — beginning when the virus took hold.
That allows comparisons that do not depend on the accuracy of cause-of-death reporting, and includes deaths related to disruptions caused by the pandemic as well as the virus itself.
Epidemiologists refer to fatalities in the gap between the observed and normal numbers of deaths as “excess deaths.”
As coronavirus cases spread across the country, the geographic patterns of deaths above normal have followed.
