Record U.S. COVID-19 Surge Reaches America’s Oldest Populations

The record coronavirus spike that began with young Americans is increasingly finding older communities at elevated risk of severe illness, declares Bloomberg . Counties with the biggest 65-and-over populations are now registering on average 18.9 daily cases per 100,000 residents, 67 percent higher than a month earlier, the latest data from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows. Relative havens back in early September, those counties are now worse than those with the smallest percentages of older Americans — and just slightly better than those with moderately sized cohorts of seniors. That follows a familiar pattern. Cases generally increase first among highly social young people, including recently returning college students. Then, they slowly bubble up among older demographics, partly through multi-generational housing and other interactions.