A Spike in People Dying at Home Suggests Coronavirus Deaths in Houston May Be Higher Than Reported

[mucifer]

As coronavirus cases surge, inundating hospitals and leading to testing shortages, a rapidly growing number of Houston area residents are dying at home, according to an NBC News and ProPublica review of Houston Fire Department data. An increasing number of these at-home deaths have been confirmed to be the result of COVID-19, Harris County medical examiner data shows.

The previously unreported jump in people dying at home is the latest indicator of a mounting crisis in a region beset by one of the nation’s worst and fastest-growing coronavirus outbreaks. On Tuesday, a record 3,851 people were hospitalized for the coronavirus in the Houston region, exceeding normal intensive care capacity and sending some hospitals scrambling to find additional staff and

he uptick in the number of people dying before they can even reach a hospital in Houston draws parallels to what happened in New York City in March and April, when there was a spike in the number of times firefighters responded to medical calls, only to discover that the person in need of help had already died. These increases also echo those reported during outbreaks in Detroit and Boston, when the number of people dying at home jumped as coronavirus cases surged.

While far more people died of COVID-19 in those cities than have died so far in Houston, researchers and paramedics say that the trend of sudden at-home deaths in Texas’ largest city is concerning because it shows that the virus’s toll may be deeper than what appears in official death tallies and daily hospitalization reports.

https://www.propublica.org/article/a-spike-in-people-dying-at-home-suggests-coronavirus-deaths-in-houston-may-be-higher-than-reported

[PoindexterOglethorpe]

1. And at least some of those dying at home are dying of

non Covid-19 causes. I've read that people are avoiding hospitals for fear of contracting it, and so they're not getting treating for other things that can still kill them.

This also highlights why it will forever be difficult to know just how many people have or will have died from this. Just the raw number of excess deaths over some earlier period will not be perfect, but will be the best number we'll have.

[uponit7771]

2. Houston sounds so much like New York right now but with more black people dying. Abbot is evil

... enough to kill enough black people to stay in power

[tulipsandroses]

3. Exactly!! They watched NY go through this and learned nothing

Why? All that suffering, all that death, the healthcare workers on the frontlines pleading and warning and telling their stories and yet these state officials learned nothing to protect their people. Its shameful.

[uponit7771]

4. ... or, they learned a lot about making it worse in areas so they can stay in power. Trump is evil,

... he's a dark force and would not put this past him