Nation Still Has Work to Do Containing COVID-19

The challenge of managing the spread of the COVID-19 virus showed up this week with new metrics from a Web site tracking infection rates in all 50 states.

Just a week ago, the site rt.live showed that the virus was in decline under a key metric—an Rt value of less than one—in 48 states, suggesting that the numbers of cases should soon be on the wane. But new information from increased testing, it says, now shows that 14 states remain in growth mode for the virus.

The good news for Missouri is that, despite an increase in its transmission rate, it remains well below the 1.0 threshold at .87. Kansas, however, has risen from a low of .84 earlier in May to just below the growth threshold at .99.

Of the states with growing rates, North Carolina has been hit hardest, rising from .93 in mid-May to 1.38 as of today. That’s well ahead of No. 2 Georgia, which was originally hailed as a model of success for safely reopening the state economy, but has surged to a growth rate of 1.14.

There was, however, some hopeful news: according to Worldometers.com, which tracks daily deaths and new cases worldwide, the U.S. this week saw its non-holiday weekday total of COVID fatalities drop to the lowest level since the death counts started to soar in late March. That came on Monday, with 730 deaths nationwide, less than half the 1,550 recorded on the Monday before Memorial Day.