Previous Story
How do CNMI’s infection numbers and hospitalization rates compare?
COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations, and deaths continue to increase in the United States, based on the latest numbers of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s COVID Data Tracker, but that has not been the case so far in the CNMI where, after a brief peak in both infection and hospitalization rates, both numbers have been going down lately.
According to Stephanie Kern-Allely, regional communicable disease epidemiologist for the Pacific Island Health Officers Association, hospitalizations in the CNMI due to COVID-19 have been lagging compared to the rate of infections since Oct. 28, 2021.
Responding to an inquiry by Saipan Tribune last week, Kern-Allely, who has returned to the CNMI to continue to provide epidemiology support and work closely with the Commonwealth Healthcare Corp., said the weekly number of COVID-19 infections rose rapidly to a peak in mid-December and since then has been on a decline.
As for the hospitalization rate, Kern-Allely said it peaked in the first week of January and since then has also been on a decline.
These are based on what has been observed of infection numbers and hospitalization rates from October 2021 to last week, she said.
“Hospitalizations due to COVID-19 lag behind the number of cases. Since Oct. 28, the weekly number of COVID-19 cases rapidly rose to a peak in mid-December and has since been declining. Meanwhile, the rate of hospitalization peaked the first week of January and is now declining. This represents a three-week lag from the latest peak in cases to the peak in hospitalization rate,” she said.
So far, there have been a total of 4,344 COVID-19 cases in the CNMI since March 26, 2020. As of Jan. 24, 2022, there are now a total of 3,887 recoveries; 435 active cases; and 22 COVID-19-related deaths.
The CNMI’s closest neighbor, Guam, had a total of 29,478 cases as of yesterday; 22,251 recoveries; 6,945 active cases; and 282 deaths.
