Data: The COVID Tracking Project, state health departments; Map: Andrew Witherspoon, Sara Wise/Axios
New coronavirus infections rose over the past week in half the country.
Why it matters: The U.S. remains largely unable or unwilling to control the spread of the virus.
By the numbers: Nationwide, the U.S. averaged roughly 43,000 cases per day during the past week — essentially unchanged from the week before.
- The number of new daily infections rose in 25 states, spanning every region of the country. New Mexico recorded the biggest spike, at over 50%.
- That broad, nationwide increase was offset by continued progress in pockets of the southern U.S. Only eight states saw their new infections decline over the past week, but that group includes the populous states of Arizona, Florida, Texas and Virginia.
Testing was up almost 9% over the same period. The U.S. is now conducting about 935,000 tests per day.
How it works: Each week, Axios tracks the change in new infections in each state. We use a seven-day average to minimize the effects of day-to-day discrepancies in states’ reporting.
- Texas and North Carolina both reported big data dumps recently that encompassed large backlogs of cases. We have excluded both of those reports from this analysis.
