“Why CDC Estimates COVID-19 Infections, Illnesses, Hospitalizations, and Deaths: The cumulative burden of COVID-19 is an estimate of the number of people who may have been infected, sick, hospitalized, or died as a result of a COVID-19 infection in the United States… COVID-19 infections, symptomatic illnesses, hospitalizations, and deaths might be under detected and go unreported for a variety of reasons.
- Some people infected with SARS-CoV-2 never show symptoms (asymptomatic infection), so their infection will likely go undetected.
- Case reports sent to CDC are often missing patient information, like age or hospitalization status, or are delayed…
Because current surveillance systems do not capture all cases or deaths of COVID-19 occurring in the United States, CDC provides these estimates to better reflect the larger burden of COVID-19. CDC uses these types of estimates to inform policy decisions and public messages.”
As of August 12, 2022, here are the CDC estimates for the period February 2020 to September 2021:
- 146.6 million estimated total infections
- 7.5 million estimated hospitalizations
- 921,000 estimated total deaths