Biden administration officials attempting to recalculate U.S. COVID-19 hospitalizations

The Biden administration is currently working to recalculate the number of Covid-19 hospitalizations in the United States. 

A task force of scientists and data specialists was created at the Department of Health and Human Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to work with hospitals across the country to improve reporting.

According to Politico, the task force is having hospitals report the number of Covid-19 patients who come in because they have tested positive, separate from those who are admitted for other health reasons and test positive later. The goal is to get a more accurate sense of the virus’s nationwide impact and if the virus is causing severe illness. 

White House health officials have relied on hospitalizations throughout the duration of the pandemic, so it is important for understanding what public health measures need to be implemented. More accurate numbers will provide a better idea of the strain facing hospitals and staff. However, accomplishing this task is difficult. 

Eric Topol, a professor of molecular medicine at Scripps Research and former advisory board member of the Covid Tracking Project, said, “You need a panel of experts to review the cases to adjudicate if a hospitalization is for a person who came in for Covid or with Covid. It’s not something that is coded in the chart. A lot of people will say an individual came in with Covid, but it was actually the Covid that exacerbated the lung or heart disease.”