According to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker, the number of global cases has reached 8,546,919, up by 146,599 since yesterday. The daily increase has been consistently above 100,000 for over a week. While confirmed case growth has slowed in the United States, the United Kingdom and most of the rest of Europe, it has picked up in Russia, India and Latin America.

Active cases worldwide number 3,894,919 and they are 46% of the total of the world’s confirmed cases. Total global recovered cases rose by 86,091 to 4,195,274. They have jumped ahead of active cases in the past week. And global fatal cases hit 456,726, after a 6,291 one-day gain. Deaths are just above 5% of the world’s confirmed cases total. At the current rates, the number could hit 500,000 in about a week. Many experts believe the death count is much too low, largely because many developing nations cannot track or accurately count numbers.

In Brazil, the hardest hit nation after the United States, confirmed cases have reached 1,067,579, or up by 34,666, and are rapidly growing. The death count rose by 1,022 to 49,976. CNN reports that the number of Brazil’s confirmed cases and deaths may pass those of the United States.

Russia, the third hardest hit nation, posted a COVID-19 death increase of 161 to 8,002. That is with confirmed cases up to 576,952, after adding 7,889.

India, the fourth hardest hit country, has a confirmed case count of 411,727, which is up 15,915 in a day. Deaths have reached 13,278, after rising by 307. The official Indian figures are almost certainly very low. The nation’s Deputy Chief Minister Manish Sisodia told reporters that he expected the city of Delhi to have 550,000 cases by the end of July. Delhi has a population of 20 million, while India’s population is 1.353 billion. While the infection rate across the nation is not uniform, it is an indication that the COVID-19 case count for the country likely is much higher than reported.

Total confirmed cases in the United States have hit 2,294,563, which is 32,534 higher. That is 27% of the world’s total. The increase is among the largest in several weeks and is driven by a rise in several states, including Texas, Florida and California, the three largest states by population. Among them, they have over 27% of the U.S. population.

Confirmed cases in California increased by 3,893 to 169,309, moving ahead of New Jersey to become the second hardest hit state after New York. Note that New Jersey, a state with a large number of cases early in the spread of the disease, posted an increase of only 338 new confirmed cases. Deaths in California hit 5,424, up by 64.

In Texas, the confirmed case count has reached 107,735, or up by 4,430. The state has reported 25 new COVID-19 deaths, for a total of 2,165. Harris County, home to Houston, has been hit particularly hard. Confirmed cases there number 19,739, a gain of 1,187. That means Harris county has more than 18% of the confirmed cases in Texas. Harris County, with a population of 4,698,619, is the third-largest in the United States, after Los Angeles County and Cook County (home to Chicago).

Florida had 93,797 confirmed cases, after a one-day gain of 4,049. Deaths there reached 3,144, up by 40.

Active COVID-19 cases in America totaled 1,463,597, and recovered cases were at 709,535, after rising by 6,326. It continues to be a bad sign that the number of active cases is about twice that of recovered cases.

American coronavirus fatalities hit 121,431, or 600 higher. The number of deaths per day has been below 1,000 for most of the past two weeks. U.S. deaths are still 27% of the world’s total. The carefully followed University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation forecast says U.S. deaths will top 200,000 by October 1.

Massachusetts Case Growth Slows

Massachusetts was hit hard and hit early. Drug company Biogen had an event in Boston in the first week of March. Apparently, some of the company’s executives already had contracted the disease. First, it spread across the Boston area, and then it moved to the western part of the state.

Massachusetts remains the seventh hardest hit state, just behind Texas. Massachusetts has 106,936 confirmed cases, after adding 286 in a day. Texas has 107,735, which is up by 4,430. The increase in Massachusetts has slowed, but the effects of the disease in the state are still remarkably high. The state’s population of 6,892,503 compares to 28,995,881 for Texas.

The United Kingdom Gets Some Relief

While the United Kingdom ranks sixth in confirmed cases among all the countries of the world, the spread of the disease has slowed. It has 303,110 confirmed cases, up by 1,295 since yesterday.

The seventh nation ranked by confirmed cases is hotspot Peru. It has 3,413 more cases to total 251,338. The figures show the difference between some of the European nations hit early and those that are suffering now, particularly in South America.

Thank you for reading! Have some feedback for us?
Contact the 24/7 Wall St. editorial team.