Coronavirus in the U.S.: Where cases are growing and declining

The United States stands poised to cross five million total coronavirus cases in the coming days, meaning the nation has recorded nearly a million new incidents in less than three weeks. Yet after a recent slate of surges, America has entered a lull. Daily tallies have leveled off in 26 states and territories, and new cases and new hospitalizations have both stabilized—though at the worrying levels of 50,000 to 60,000 per day, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

The U.S. has reached a similar plateau before. The nation’s outbreak had grown exponentially during March, until settling into 20,000 to 30,000 new cases per day by the beginning of April. The national tally surpassed 50,000 cases per day just before July 4, and the U.S. smashed its record for daily cases on July 17, with more than 75,000 new incidents reported. Since then, new cases have flattened to about 65,000 per day as the outbreak’s growth has reached equilibrium in places such as Arizona.

Death rates, which lag at least a month behind case counts, continue to rise, as they have done for the last four weeks. Daily deaths are increasing in approximately 20 states and territories.

The map below shows the regions where cases and deaths are either decreasing or increasing the most, based on the last seven days compared to the previous week.