Top 5 States in Cases, Deaths, Hospitalizations & Positivity (9/24)

Trends in the Midwest/Plains Hotspots

• Positivity rates in North Dakota, South Dakota, Idaho, Missouri, and Wisconsin have nearly doubled over the last 30 days
• While the number of cases have increased and a greater number of people are testing positive (indicating a high rate of spread), the number of hospitalizations and the number of deaths are still low

Cases & Tests (9/24)

Worldwide Cases:  

• Total Cases = 32,085,788 
• New Cases = 315,717 
• New Cases (7 day average) = 285,776 (+1,863) (+0.7%)

Observations:

• 2^nd highest number of new cases 
• 7 day average of new deaths is a record high
• 1,000,000+ cases every 4 days (based on 7 day average)

US Cases & Testing: 

• Total Cases = 7,139,553 
• New Cases = 41,616 
• Percentage of New Global Cases = 13.2%      
• New Cases (7 day average) = 41,293 (+188) (+0.5%)
• Total Number of Tests = 100,582,090 
• Percentage of positive tests (7 day average) = 5.3% 

Observations:

• 7 day average of new cases has been mostly trending down since 2^nd peak on 7/25, with increases from 9/13 to 9/20
• 7 day average of new cases is 40.7% less than 2^nd peak
• Total tests exceed 100 million
• 7 day average of percentage of positive tests, which has been trending lower, is approaching 5%

Deaths

Worldwide Deaths: 

• Total Deaths = 981,228 
• New Deaths = 6,273 
• New Deaths (7 day average) = 5,225 (+35) (+0.7%)

Observations:

• 7 day average has mostly been trending down since 2^nd peak on 8/13
• 7 day average is 11.8% less than 2^nd peak

US Deaths: 

• Total Deaths = 206,593 
• New Deaths = 1,122
• Percentage of Global New Deaths = 17.9% 
• New Deaths (7 day average) = 751 (+14) (1.9%)

Observations:

• Number of new deaths is 29 less than last week
• Number of new deaths in US fall to 3^rd highest, behind India and Brazil
• 7 day average of new deaths declined for the first times since recent rise in daily deaths began on 7/5, which may indicate that the rise in daily deaths has peaked

Is the Fall Surge Here?

• Public health experts have long been worried that the end of the summer — as some students returned to school and the weather cooled — would bring a surge in coronavirus cases.
• That surge appears to have begun.
• The number of new daily confirmed cases in the U.S. has jumped more than 15% in the past 10 days. It is the sharpest increase since the late spring, and it has arrived just before the official start of autumn.
• Unlike the earlier summer surge in the U.S., this spike also coincides with a rising number of cases in other affluent countries, like Canada and much of Europe. The increases appeared to play a role in yesterday’s stock-market decline, as investors feared the need for new lockdowns.
• In Britain today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to announce new restrictions on nightlife. In the Czech Republic yesterday, the health minister resigned. In Madrid, the authorities imposed new restrictions on almost one million residents. Across Europe, officials are hoping that these targeted restrictions will reduce new cases — and allow them to avoid imposing full lockdowns again.
• In Britain today, Prime Minister Boris Johnson plans to to announce new restrictions on nightlife. In the Czech Republic yesterday, the health minister resigned. In Madrid, the authorities imposed new restrictions on almost one million residents. Across Europe, officials are hoping that these targeted restrictions will reduce new cases — and allow them to avoid imposing full lockdowns again.
• Coming weeks may bring new problems, too: The cooler fall weather will start to complicate outdoor socializing. “And if pandemic-fatigued families travel to spend the holidays together, it will get worse in late fall and winter,” The Times’s Jeneen Interlandi wrote in an article previewing the rest of the year.
• There has been one big piece of good news. People infected today are roughly 30% to 50% less likely to die than those in the early spring, Ashish Jha, the dean of Brown University’s School of Public Health, estimates.

Source:  New York Times Coronavirus Update