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The level of hospitalizations for Covid-19 in the United States rose in November, ending a series of two-month declines after the country’s summer surge.

The increase in hospitalizations has been accompanied by a daily rise in new coronavirus infections and a high number of deaths, raising concerns about a fifth wave of the pandemic in the United States as it approaches. Winter.

There were 58,067 patients in US hospitals with Covid-19 on November 30, according to a Financial Times analysis of data released Wednesday by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). This marked a 20% increase from late October, which was the lowest level since late July, but comfortably below summer highs of over 103,000 in late August.

In about three-fifths of U.S. states, the average seven-day hospitalizations are higher than they were in late October, according to an FT analysis of HHS data. Michigan and the northeastern states of Maine, New Hampshire and Vermont – where temperatures have cooled – reported their highest average patient levels in November.

The United States recorded an average of around 82,500 new cases of Covid-19 per day during the week ended November 30, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, a 16% increase since the end of October.

Covid-related deaths averaged 816, up from nearly 1,200 a day at the end of October, but the latest figures could be lower due to reporting delays after the long Thanksgiving weekend.

More than 70% of the U.S. population has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine, while 59.4% are fully vaccinated, CDC data showed on Wednesday. Nearly 42 million Americans have received their booster shots.

During a press briefing at the White House on Wednesday, Dr Anthony Fauci reaffirmed that around 80 million Americans had not been vaccinated against Covid-19. He begged them to sign up for their injections as he and other senior health officials revealed that the first US case of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus had been identified in California.