Back in early May when the number of coronavirus cases in the United States reportedly had topped one million, I was curious, so I did some digging on the internet.
I found a website that features a wealth of information on the coronavirus. Information on the WorldoMeter website is available on the number of cases, new cases, active cases, deaths, and tests overall and by per-million population for 212 countries and territories. The website also provides state-by-state data for each of our 50 states and the District of Columbia.
The information is reportedly based on data that the non-profit organization collects directly from official government communication channels. The organization is cited as one of the best, free reference websites by the American Library Association.
The coronavirus data is constantly being updated so what you see today will not be the same as what is was yesterday or what you will see tomorrow. Of course, the data is highly dependent on the accuracy of information provided on official government communication channels.
With three months having elapsed, I thought it be interesting to look at how the data from early August compares to the data from three months ago.
Coronavirus Cases Worldwide
Over the past three months, there have been significant changes in which countries are reporting the most coronavirus cases.
In early May, the countries reporting the most coronavirus cases were as follows:
|
Country |
% of Cases |
1 |
United States |
32.8% |
2 |
Spain |
6.6% |
3 |
Italy |
5.5% |
4 |
United Kingdom |
5.2% |
5 |
Russia |
4.8% |
6 |
France |
4.4% |
7 |
Germany |
4.3% |
8 |
Brazil |
3.5% |
9 |
Turkey |
3.4% |
10 |
Iran |
2.7% |
China was reporting 2.1% of the total cases internationally, and India 1.5%.
As of early August, there were six new countries in the top ten.
|
Country |
% of Cases |
1 |
United States |
26.3% |
2 |
Brazil |
14.9% |
3 |
India |
10.1% |
4 |
Russia |
4.6% |
5 |
South Africa |
2.8% |
6 |
Mexico |
2.4% |
7 |
Peru |
2.3% |
8 |
Chile |
1.9% |
9 |
Spain |
1.9% |
10 |
Columbia |
1.8% |
China, which has the largest population in the world, was reporting less than .5% of the cases worldwide.
Coronavirus Testing
There have been significant increases in testing for the coronavirus.
As of early May, only two countries – Denmark and Israel – had conducted more than 50,000 coronavirus tests per one million people. In the United States, the number of tests per one million people was a little more than 25,000. As early August, the number of tests per one million people in the United States had grown more than seven times to nearly 185,000.
Coronavirus Cases Resulting in Death
The percentage of coronavirus cases in the United States that have resulted in a person dying has decreased from 6.0% in early May to 3.3% as yesterday.
Many of the countries reporting at least 50,000 coronavirus cases have percentages higher than 3.3%.
Country |
% of Cases Resulting in Death |
France |
15.8% |
United Kingdom |
15.1% |
Italy |
14.2% |
Belgium |
14.0% |
Netherlands |
11.0% |
Mexico |
10.8% |
Spain |
8.3% |
Canada |
7.6% |
Sweden |
7.1% |
Ecuador |
6.6% |
Iran |
5.6% |
Peru |
4.6% |
Romania |
4.5% |
Germany |
4.3% |
Iraq |
3.7% |
Brazil |
3.4% |
Portugal |
3.4% |
Coronavirus in the United States
The data indicates that the number of coronavirus cases topped 400,000 in four states – California, Florida, Texas and New York. These four states are estimated to be the top four states in terms of total population as of July 2019. Together, the four states account for approximately one-third of the population in the United States and reported just under 40% of the total number of coronavirus cases.
While no other state had reported more than 200,000 coronavirus cases, four states – Georgia, New Jersey, Illinois and Arizona – had totals between 180,000 and 200,000.
The reported number of cases in the rest of the states were below 130,000.
# of Coronavirus Cases per Million in United States
The number of coronavirus cases per one million persons topped 20,000 in six states:
State |
# of Cases/M |
Louisiana |
25,995 |
Arizona |
24,661 |
New York |
22,907 |
Florida |
22,902 |
New Jersey |
21,188 |
Mississippi |
20,538 |
In 19 states, the number of cases per million is less than 10,000.
Coronavirus Testing in the United States
There appears to be a wide variance in the number of coronavirus tests per one million persons conducted by states, from less than 100,000 tests per million persons in Colorado, Oregon and Pennsylvania to more than 300,000 tests per million in states such as New York.
Coronavirus Cases Resulting in Death in United States
There also appears to be a wide variance in the percentage of coronavirus cases that have resulted in death.
The percentage tops 5% in the following eight states:
State |
% of Cases Resulting in Death |
Connecticut |
8.9% |
New Jersey |
8.5% |
New York |
7.4% |
Massachusetts |
7.3% |
Michigan |
7.0% |
New Hampshire |
6.3% |
Pennsylvania |
6.2% |
Rhode Island |
5.2% |
The percentage is below two percent in 23 states and below 3% in 31 states.
What are your thoughts about the wide variances of what is being experienced from one country and from one state to another?