Welcome to The Data Point, a series from the NBC News Data Graphics team that explains a slice of the latest news through charts and visuals.
Covid-19 hospitalizations have doubled in 15 states, Puerto Rico and Washington, D.C., over the past two weeks, contributing to a new national record for pandemic hospitalizations.
Across the country, average Covid hospitalizations increased by more than 60,000 from Dec. 27 to Jan. 10, according to an NBC News analysis of Department of Health and Human Services data. The U.S. set a record for single-day Covid hospitalizations on Sunday, when more than 142,000 hospitalizations were reported.
One out of every 10 of those patients is in Florida, where hospitals are facing a near-quadrupling of Covid patients in that time period. Average hospitalizations there rose from about 2,400 to more than 9,100. In Washington, D.C., 1 out of every 800 residents are hospitalized for Covid. In New Jersey, that number is 1 out of every 1,500.
Covid hospitalizations include those admitted for the disease as well as Covid-positive patients who went to the hospital for other reasons, all of whom contribute to hospital stress levels.
In Georgia, where hospitalizations have nearly tripled, those who are unvaccinated account for 70 percent of patients, according to the latest data from the state Department of Public Health. That figure in New York state, which adjusts its numbers for population, is 92 percent, and in California, it’s 88 percent, according to the latest data.
With more than 130,000 U.S. hospitalizations on average as of Monday, about 1 in every 2,500 U.S. residents is now hospitalized.
NBC News is tracking hospitalization rates across the country, Covid case surges in each state, vaccination rates nationwide and whether the CDC recommends indoor masking in the county where you live.
