More than 90% of COVID Deaths Occurring Among Elderly Adults: CDC

ABC News / Mary Kekatos

Older people have always been known to be one of the groups at highest risk of death from COVID-19, but they now make up a larger share than ever before.

As of the week ending Nov. 19, Americans aged 65 and older make up 92% of all deaths from the virus, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

It's the first time senior citizens have made up more than nine out of 10 deaths since the pandemic began and a drastic increase from the roughly 58% of deaths they made up in summer 2021, an ABC News analysis shows.

An infectious disease expert told ABC News the data showcases the lack of boosters received by the older population and how the impact of the disease is hitting the most vulnerable as protection mounts in the population.

"The bottom line is that age is the most powerful risk factor for COVID deaths and we've known that all along," Dr. Peter Chin-Hong, an infectious disease specialist at the University of California, San Francisco, told ABC News. "At this point in the pandemic, it's not enough to just get a vaccine series. So, what it reflects is the failure of the older age group to get boosters."

As of Nov. 24, just one-third of people aged 65 and older have received the bivalent boosters, CDC data shows.

The updated booster specifically protects against the omicron subvariants BA.4 and BA.5, currently making up about 20% of infections in the U.S.

While this percentage is higher than most other age groups, Chin-Hong said it's still quite low for a group at high risk of severe illness and death.

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