Coping with COVID: Seven-day average for new daily infections reaches record high in U.S.

Driven by last Friday’s record surge in new COVID-19 cases nationwide—topping 100,000 for the first time—the rolling seven-day average for new daily infections in the U.S. reached a pandemic high of 88,915 on Tuesday. This, according to the Web site worldometers.com, which tracks infection rates by state domestically and by nation worldwide.

In tandem with that trendline, though, the lethal nature of this coronavirus continues to wane, largely because the bulk of those new infections involve younger Americans who are less likely to experience serious health effects from the virus—if they show any symptoms at all. The rolling seven-day average for deaths in the U.S. stood at 871 on Tuesday, down more than 60 percent from 2,259 at the lethality peak in late April. Nationally, the case fatality rate is at 1 percent, down sharply from 7.67 at its spring peak.

Another site tracking COVID-19 metrics, rt.live, reports this morning that only two states—North Carolina and Mississippi—report infection rates that, in the eyes of public-health officials, place the spread of the virus under control. The site uses what’s called the Rt scale, where anything below 1.0 indicates the virus is tapering off and anything above that indicates growth in the rate of viral spread. Mississippi weighed in at 0.83; North Carolina at 0.97. The 48 other states and District of Columbia continue to battle growth in the rate of transmission, topped by a 1.36 reading in Vermont. Kansas and Missouri were both among the Top 10 states on that scale—Kansas was tied for sixth-highest, at 1.22; Missouri was tied for ninth with Illinois and Michigan at 1.19.

In this region, increasing case numbers have school officials’ with a finger on the button to order full-time distance learning in Johnson County. But all six public school districts, as of today, still have in-class instruction, and the county’s public-health director, Sanmi Areola, says the increased outbreak there isn’t being driven by the student population.

Overall, what’s happening in the U.S. differs little from the surge in cases in many countries, especially those in Europe. Friday’s surge in the U.S. was part of a global pattern; the 577,000 new cases recorded that day were also a record. France and Spain saw record numbers of new cases on Friday, as did Italy on Saturday.