Patients hospitalized with COVID-19 are surviving at higher rates than in the early days of the pandemic. Multiple studies show the mortality rate of hospitalized patients dropping, from over 11 percent in March to under 4 percent in September. Patients are also leaving the hospital in half the time. There are many possible reasons. First, we better understand the disease and how to treat it. Patients are coming in for treatment earlier in their course of symptoms. And more patients infected now are younger and healthier than those who got the virus this spring. But as cases rise across the country, we could see these mortality rates rise too if the hospitals become overwhelmed.