Since the COVID-19 pandemic began over a year ago, death rates in US hospitalized patients decreased from 19.7% in April 2020 to 9.3% in November, according to a study published last week in JAMA Network Open.While this may reflect improved treatments and standards of care, a JAMA Network Open research letter published this week highlights how COVID-19 can still complicate healthcare: 15% of COVID-positive patients died after surgery, compared with 7% of those without COVID.Drop in deaths especially pronounced in elderlyFrom March 2020 to November 2021, researchers from Merck looked at 503,409 patients hospitalized for at least 1 day in 1,209 US acute care hospitals, of whom 8.5% were COVID-positive.