Coronavirus Hospitalizations in the US Near April Peak

“Once you get to the point of being hospitalized or in the I.C.U., some notable portion of those people will die,” said Natalie E. Dean, an infectious-disease expert at the University of Florida. Even when patients walk out of the hospital, “we don’t know what the long-term consequences are,” she said. “Surviving doesn’t mean thriving.”

Not long ago, things seemed to be improving. Fewer than 28,000 patients were hospitalized as of mid-June, when a new surge of cases was appearing throughout the Sun Belt.

The uptick in hospitalized patients around the country reflects a different phase of the pandemic — a widening geographic area, especially across the South, for the most serious illnesses compared with what had been a relatively concentrated crisis in the spring.

Back then, nearly one in five hospitalized patients were in New York, and the city had to set up mobile morgues to keep up with the rising deaths. Now, the situation looks far different, and California, where the virus is surging, has reported more cases than New York. In the past week, both Florida and Texas have added an average of more than 10,000 reported cases each day, with California not far behind.

The spike in hospitalizations for the virus has been driven in part by people younger than 50. That group made up nearly 40 percent of the hospitalizations as of earlier this month, compared with 26 percent in late April, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The shift offers one hopeful sign: Young people are less likely to die from the virus.