The percentage of emergency department visits that were diagnosed as COVID has remained largely unchanged in recent weeks, at 0.6 percent—with the highest rates located in the Southwest: New Mexico at 1.8 percent and Arizona at 1.5 percent.
Deaths from COVID are highest in North Carolina, with 1.4 percent of deaths attributed to the virus.
California, Michigan, New York and Florida also have higher than average rates of COVID-related deaths, ranging from 1.2 percent in California to 0.6 percent in Florida.
Coastal areas along Texas's stretch of the Gulf of Mexico could be vulnerable to being consumed by water as sea levels rise due to the effects of climate change, modeling suggests.
By the year 2100, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) estimates there will be between 43 and 84 centimeters (1.4-2.8 feet) of sea level rise, but that an increase of 2 meters (6.6 feet) "cannot be ruled out."
Major cities on the U.S. Atlantic coast are sinking, in some cases as much as 5 millimeters per year—a decline at the ocean's edge that well outpaces global sea level rise, confirms new research from Virginia Tech and the U.S. Geological Survey.
Sixteen U.S. states had a substantial increase in coronavirus hospitalizations in the week leading up to Christmas compared with the previous seven days, maps from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) show.
