The gold standard is and always has been Excess Deaths.
For the US, EDs trail the current day by about 4 weeks, because it takes that long for deaths to reach the tabulator. These are deaths of ALL causes.
This past week there has been a sharp upturn in EDs of all causes. There are no significant lockdowns in the US right now. This is the delta surge killing people because there is no other prominent cause known (repeat, no lockdowns underway, hospitals are indeed filling up with people dying of Covid so other treatments are difficult to provide, which is a death due to Covid regardless of causation).
Be all that as it may be, EDs began an upturn last week on the ED page. It updates with a new week’s data each Wednesday.