insiderblmWhen the first U.S. case of the new coronavirus, COVID-19, was confirmed on Jan. 21, it appeared to be contained — the patient was a man living near Seattle who had recently returned from Wuhan, China and immediately isolated himself, and the local health department had conducted contact tracing to make sure that anyone he had encountered was now quarantining at home.
But as more people returned to the U.S. from China, and then Italy, the site of the second major outbreak, the number of cases started to tick upwards. And due to the nature of the virus — which is highly contagious but can present without symptoms — it began to spread in communities where there were no known cases and no testing measures in place.
From there, the number of cases soared — up to 1,000 by March 26, to 1 million by April 28, 3 million by July 8, 3.5 million by July 17, 5.2 million by August 13 and 7 million by September 25. October had been one of the worst months on record, with an increase of 2 million cases since September. And the start of November has been even worse: in just eight days, the U.S. has broken their record for most new cases in a single day five different times, with an all-time high of 142,860 on Nov. 11, according to The New York Times.
By Nov. 9, the number of total cases since the start of the pandemic surpassed 10 million.
The death toll is also on its way up — on Nov. 4, at least 1,616 Americans died from COVID-19, the most since July 27. Public health experts warn that more could be coming, with COVID-19 hospitalizations hitting record-highs in 18 different states, primarily in the midwest. On Nov. 11, 65,368 Americans were hospitalized with COVID-19, the most of the entire pandemic and double the number hospitalized just a month prior, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
The soaring case numbers can be seen in the above graphic, which shows how the virus circulated through the country over the last few months. Each state pops up when they have identified their first case of COVID-19, and then shows, day by day, how their number of cases grows.
The color of the circles also shows the percentage of the population that has tested positive and the inner black dots represent those who have died.
The graphic can also be sorted by three different measures — the number of cases, the number of deaths and the percentage of cases in relation to the state’s population.
Most states transitioned out of stay-at-home orders at the end of May out of pressure to salvage the economy, despite warnings from health experts that if businesses begin to reopen without safety measures in place, such as testing and contact tracing, they risk continued outbreaks. Those warnings came to life in the last two months, with soaring case numbers across the country and a growing death toll. There were over 1,000 deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. for four straight days between July 21 and 24.
The graphic will continue to update each day with new cases, and states may shuffle places if their cases increase.
(SOURCES: COVID-19 statistics are from The New York Times; population estimates are from U.S. Census Data)
