COVID hospitalizations continue plunge, reach near-two-month low

COVID-19 hospitalizations throughout the U.S. have continued to fall sharply, maintaining a three-week downward trend that has placed the total number of patients hospitalized with the virus roughly where it was at the beginning of December.

As of Friday, states reported almost exactly 101,000 individuals hospitalized with a positive COVID-19 test, according to the COVID Tracking Project. The last time levels were that low was Dec. 2.

Hospitalization numbers more or less peaked around Jan. 8 and have been on a largely unbroken downward trend since. Health officials have been concerned that steadily increasing hospitalizations may overwhelm local healthcare systems.

Though significant attention has been paid to COVID hospital numbers over the course of the last year, the data undergirding those numbers has at times been called into question.

State health officials, for instance, have largely been failing to distinguish between individuals hospitalized because of COVID and those who merely test positive for the disease while in the hospital.