You're more likely to die from COVID-19 in the U.S. than other high income countries amid omicron, data suggests

Although the omicron variant of the coronavirus is less likely to cause severe disease compared to previously dominating strains, the U.S. is still experiencing more COVID-19 death than at almost any other point in the pandemic.

The country surpassed 900,000 deaths over the weekend and may reach a million by April, according to a USA TODAY analysis of Johns Hopkins data, with about 2,400 deaths reported each day.

Omicron’s increased transmissibility may be partly to blame for a rise in COVID deaths, health experts say, but data showing the U.S. case fatality rate is one of the highest in the world suggests there’s more to the story.

The U.S. case fatality rate – the ratio between confirmed deaths and confirmed cases – has decreased from 1.63% since the height of the delta wave on Sept. 1 to 1.18% as of Feb. 6, according to Our World in Data.

But while the country’s case fatality rate during the delta wave was below other high income countries, it’s now among the highest. Health experts worry the U.S. may be falling behind compared to the progress against the virus made by other countries.

“Overall, there are fewer deaths per infection that are occurring, even in the U.S., but the numbers aren’t as good as we’ve seen in other parts of the world,” said Andrew Pekosz, a virologist and professor at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health.

Low vaccination and booster rates, lack of testing and consequences from an imperfect health system has stunted U.S. progress in the pandemic leading to more COVID-19 deaths and a higher case fatality rate, health experts say.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reports about 64% of Americans are fully vaccinated against COVID-19, trailing behind countries like Canada, which boasts a vaccination rate of nearly 80%, reported Our World in Data.

The vaccines are not meant to prevent all infections, but they do “a great job” protecting against severe illness and death, said Chris Dickey, director of global and environmental health at New York University’s School of Global Public Health.

“It is true that other countries seem to have lower case fatality ratios, and a lot of that is attributable to the difference in vaccinations and, most importantly, boosters,” he said.

As of Feb. 7, the CDC reports only 42% of eligible Americans have received a booster, which Our World in Data shows is about 27% of the total population. This pales in comparison to countries like Denmark and the U.K. that report booster rates of more than 61% and 54%, respectively.

Fully vaccinated Americans are 14 times less likely to die of COVID-19 than those who haven’t gotten the shots. Those who are boosted are 97 times less likely, according to figures presented last week by CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.

“In many countries where we saw higher case fatality from omicron, these are individuals who are not vaccinated,” Dr. Maria van Kerkhove, the World Health Organization COVID-19 Technical Lead, told the USA TODAY editorial board last week. “It is quite striking this level of death right now.”

The higher case fatality rate could also be partly explained by the lack of testing in the U.S., health experts say. The Biden administration purchased 500 million rapid tests to send straight to American homes, but many positive results go unreported.

'Vast majority are not reported': Home coronavirus tests make it impossible to track all cases

US COVID-19 map: Tracking cases and deaths

CDC officials acknowledged in November the agency is unable to track home test results and is working with testing companies to make it convenient for consumers to voluntarily report results, either through an app or website. But “the amount of data that have flowed as a result of these efforts (is) a tiny fraction of all COVID-19 testing data.”

Johns Hopkins University reported more than 300,000 new positive tests on Monday but health experts say there may be more at home that would skew the case fatality rate.

“Testing is better in some parts of the world,” Dickey said. “Other countries are testing much more frequently and accurately.”

Access to testing is also important to secure early treatment for people who may be more at risk for COVID-19 severe disease and death.

But even if people detect the virus early in the disease, experts say they’re more reluctant to seek care in the American health system until it becomes life threatening, leading to more preventable deaths.

“For quite a large segment of the U.S. population, people are much more reluctant to interact with the health system because they’re worried about the bills,” Dickey said. “Other countries, where health is more or less universally covered, they might be more ready to access the health system.”

Although the pace of new COVID cases has fallen by more than two-thirds from its peak just weeks ago, Johns Hopkins University data shows, the country is still reporting more than three cases every second.

Health experts urge Americans to take preventative measures to avoid infection and becoming severely ill including reducing virus spread by wearing a mask, testing early and often, and most importantly, getting vaccinated and boosted.

“There are many factors driving this but it’s truly astonishing to see this level of death into the third year of the pandemic when we have tools that can prevent it,” Kerkhove said.

Contributing: Ken Alltucker, Mike Stucka, Jorge L. Ortiz, John Bacon and Celina Tebor, USA TODAY. Follow Adrianna Rodriguez on Twitter: @AdriannaUSAT.

Health and patient safety coverage at USA TODAY is made possible in part by a grant from the Masimo Foundation for Ethics, Innovation and Competition in Healthcare. The Masimo Foundation does not provide editorial input.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: COVID: US cases, deaths compared to other countries amid omicron