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The U.S. hit another grim record this week as new coronavirus cases reached a single-day high of nearly 60,000—a figure that the New York Times reported was the sixth single-day record in 10 days. On Thursday alone, Alabama, Idaho, Missouri, Montana, Oregon, and Texas set all-time highs.
According to a Fortune analysis of New York Times data, 17 states have seen an average daily increase of at least 200 cases when compared with two weeks ago, led by more than 5,000 in Florida, with California and Texas both tallying more than 3,000. Only Arkansas and New Jersey saw declines, while Connecticut, Washington, D.C., Maine, New Hampshire, New York, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wyoming were all flat.
While the national death toll from the coronavirus has been trending down for nearly three months, there are now concerns that big increases in deaths in the southern region of the U.S. could turn that number positive. California (80), Texas (68), and Florida (56) have the highest seven-day moving average, ended July 9, of deaths from the coronavirus.
The number of daily deaths nationally from the coronavirus is still well below its peak in April, but the declining death toll had been one of the few improvements the U.S. has been able to tout in its fight against the coronavirus.
Experts have suggested that the death toll has not increased at the same rate as new cases for a number of reasons, outlined by Derek Thompson in The Atlantic yesterday: The average COVID-19 patient is getting younger, deaths lag behind diagnosed cases, and increased testing may be capturing less lethal cases in the data.
State-by-state breakdown of daily new cases
New cases based on a seven-day average
More coronavirus coverage from Fortune:
- Why Black-owned businesses were hit the hardest by the pandemic
- Pop-up retail was made for the pandemic
- How the coronavirus crisis has affected female founders
- The enduring history of health care inequality for Black Americans
- E-book reading is booming during the coronavirus pandemic