PHILADELPHIA — Nine thousand people in Pennsylvania have died of COVID-19 since Dec. 1, making it one of the states hardest hit in deaths per capita in the omicron surge.
The surge reached a peak about as fatal as the coronavirus' initial spring 2020 wave in Pennsylvania. More than 100 deaths were reported per day for a month and a half. The death rate has been declining since Jan. 27, easing pressure on strained hospitals, but the state was still averaging more than 90 deaths a day Tuesday.
The variant was less likely to cause severe cases and death than previous COVID-19 strains. But because so many more people were infected by the highly transmissible variant, the total number of deaths was still very high — most of them among people who weren't vaccinated.
