The U.S. surpassed 2 million cases of COVID-19 in the past 24 hours, with the case count climbing 20,800 to 2,010,900, an increase of 1 percent. Deaths attributed to COVID-19 grew 923 to 113,097.
When you consider that early models predicted 2.2 million deaths, not cases, this might be considered a victory. However that model, and many others, have proven to be far off target.
While the stay home orders and business lockdowns limited the viral spread and the number of cases, it did great economic harm to the country. As re-opening progresses, we are seeing the economy begin to bounce back, but we are also seeing an uptick in cases in more and more states. Clearly, we need to find a solution that allows people to work and the economy to function while protecting those most likely to end up hospitalized or dead as a result of catching the coronavirus. Unfortunately, that magic line between the best and worst case scenarios is yet to be determined.
As you can see by the week-over-week numbers below and the main image above (which is from the New York Times), cases continue to rise in 21 states with the highest growth in North Carolina, Texas, California, and Florida.
If you look at map, what you will see is that two months ago, the North East was hit hard but the epicenter of new cases has shifted to the South East, from North Carolina down to Florida and west to Texas. Sure, California, Arizona and parts of the Midwest have hot sports, but the conglomeration of cases has clearly settled in the South East.
Global Numbers
On a worldwide basis, cases grew 138,000 to 7.409 million. Deaths in the past 24 hours were up more than 5,000 to 417,377. Russia crossed 500,000 cases while Brazil and India should pass 800,000 and 300,000, respectively, by this weekend.
