The Centers for Disease Control has come up with a new study on Tuesday (April 7), depicting that the majority of people who are hospitalized with COVID-19 already have one or the other underlying conditions. With more than five million confirmed cases of coronavirus and, approximately, six thousand deaths in the United States, the world is under huge stress given the explosively rising figures. In such a situation, the CDC report offers a bit of clarity on who is more prone to be infected with the deadly virus.

The segment of CDC’s Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report stated that 90 percent of the patients had preexisting conditions, the most common of them being hypertension, obesity, chronic lung disease, diabetes mellitus, and cardiovascular disease. The data that formed the basis of the inference was obtained from the COVID-19 – Associated Hospitalization Surveillance Network, or COVID – NET, which prepares population-wise surveillance database for the confirmed coronavirus hospitalizations in the U.S.

The demographics of 1,482 patients admitted from March 1 to March 30 for the virus treatment were studied. The hospitalizations included the population across 14 different states – California, Connecticut, Colorado, Georgia, Maryland, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Tennessee, New York, and Utah.

Since the day COVID-19 attacked the world population, there has been no specificity observed about the virus. This study seemed to be an attempt to giving some clarity to the mysterious nature of the illness where everything from symptoms to effects continued showing variations. It identified that the patients with the virus likely to be hospitalized belonged to 65 years of age and above. Out of these, 54 percent were males. On the other hand, the number of black people who were hospitalized was much more than their actual population in the region. Forty-five percent of the hospitalized COVID-19 patients were white while eight percent were Hispanic, per the CDC study.

The observation also depicted that the underlying conditions of the patients were similar to the ones with influenza hospitalizations. It, at the same time, claimed that the rate of hospital admission is high enough for COVID-19. Hence, along with the facts and figures, the CDC also asked people suffering from cough, fever, shortness of breath, etc. to contact their healthcare practitioner without any delay.

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