5 Slide Series

This edition tracks recent COVID deaths in the USA in two ways. The national weekly progression has been tabulated across the past two months, showing a decrease of 6% this past week versus the previous week. However, new daily deaths remain near 1,000. We also show daily COVID deaths by state comparing June, July, and August. In 26 states across these months, the average daily deaths have been highest in August.

This edition analyzes disparities in COVID deaths by race and by age cohort, showing monthly progressions during the pandemic. We’ve also assessed the proportion of all COVID deaths attributable to nursing home residents and how this has evolved over time.

This edition looks at the USA’s most recent COVID deaths relative to prior weeks, compares the US with other developed countries regarding COVID death rates and population density, and compares the four major US regions on these metrics.

This edition presents the weekly progression of COVID deaths in the USA across the 23 weeks since the first death was reported. The week ending on August 1 was our seventh-worst week in terms of COVID deaths, and the fourth consecutive week where more deaths occurred than the previous week.

We also tabulated state-by-state deaths in each of the past five months. The states are fairly evenly divided in terms of what their “highest death” month has been between three months: April, May, and July. No state experienced their highest level of COVID deaths in either March or June.

Today’s edition frames how the USA’s COVID death rate compares with other highly developed countries (our death rate is 78% higher). We also portray each state’s weekly progression of COVID tests, cases, and deaths through the month of July. July has been a disappointing “step backwards” month in the USA overall and especially so in many states. Nationwide, we experienced nearly twice as many COVID deaths this past week as occurred during the first week of July.

This edition assesses the COVID death rate in the United States in a global context. The cumulative COVID death rate in the USA to date is 6.6 times higher than the rest of the world’s collective rate. Of the 160 countries whose COVID death rates have been tracked by Johns Hopkins University, the USA’s rate is 10th highest.

This edition of the 5 slide series contains our tabulations of this week’s COVID progression. By all key measures, this has been a troubling week in terms of the pandemic worsening. New deaths were 22% higher in the week of July 8-15 versus those occurring from July 1-8. The number of persons hospitalized as of July 15 was 22% above the July 8 figure. New cases increased 20% this week relative to the prior week’s volume. Testing volume increased by 15%. The rate of tests with a positive result has increased further this past week (to 8.5%). The progression of these nationwide statistics across the past several weeks is shown in the presentation.

This week’s edition of the 5 Slide Series tracks recent COVID-19 trends. We have summarized the weekly progression of cases, tests, and deaths through July 8 at the national, state, and county levels. 72% of the US population resides in a county where the number of new cases increased during the week of July 1 – July 8 relative to the previous seven-day period.

This edition of our 5-slide series quantifies– in numerous ways– the disturbing resurgence of COVID-19. In 46 states, for example, the number of new cases emerging during June 23-30 surpassed the number from the prior week. The number of new COVID deaths this past week were 50% above the fatalities during the previous week.

Our tabulations are provided at the national and state levels (including US Territories), and we’ve also identified the 20 counties with the largest increase in new cases this past week relative to the previous week.

This edition’s COVID analytical focus has been on tabulating the weekly percentage increase in new tests relative to the weekly progression of new cases. Comparing June 17-24 with June 10-17, tests increased by 6% but new cases jumped up by 34%. This suggests that a very large disease spread is now occurring — far beyond the dynamic that more tests are identifying more underlying cases.

We also show that nursing home residents accounted for 26% of COVID deaths through June 7, and that 70% of the US population resides in a county where the number of new cases increased more this week versus during the previous week.