According to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker, the number of global cases has reached 8,546,919. 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 are 46% of the total of confirmed cases worldwide. The recovered case count is 4,195,274. The positive difference between the daily increase in recovered cases and active cases continues to show improvement.

It is notable that several nations that had a slowing of confirmed cases have become hotspots again. This includes, in particular, the United States and Germany. The increase in confirmed cases has risen above 30,000 in the United States over the past two days, a major acceleration.

Global fatal cases hit 456,726. At the current rates, the number could reach 500,000 in about a week. Deaths are just above 5% of the world’s confirmed cases total. Many experts believe the death count is much too low, largely because many developing nations cannot track or accurately count numbers.

Total confirmed cases in the United States, the hardest hit nation, have reached 2,355,680, which is 30,724 higher in a day. This is among the largest increases in several weeks. U.S. confirmed cases are 26% of the world’s total. Active COVID-19 cases there totaled 1,500,454, and recovered cases were at 733,094, after rising by 11,378. It continues to be a bad sign that active cases are so far ahead of recovered ones. American coronavirus fatalities hit 122,132, or 366 higher in a day.

In Brazil, the second hardest hit nation, confirmed cases have reached 1,111,348, or up by 24,358, and are rapidly growing. The death count rose by 748 to 51,407. The increase in deaths slowed considerably from the day before. CNN reports that the number of Brazil’s confirmed cases and deaths may pass those of the United States.

Russia has the third-highest number of confirmed cases at 599,705, but its increase of 7,425 remains relatively low. That is a fraction of the confirmed case increase in either the United States or Brazil. The nation posted a COVID-19 death increase of 153 to 8,359, again much smaller than the increases in the two hardest-hit nations.

India, the fourth hardest hit country, also posted relatively small increases. It has a confirmed case count of 441,643, a one-day gain of 15,646. Deaths have reached 14,027, after rising by 319. 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.

The numbers of confirmed cases in several states have started to soar, in particular compared to the increases in the hardest-hit state, New York. There, that figure increased to 388,488, after rising another 552.

Confirmed cases in California increased by 4,230 to 178,054. In Texas, the confirmed case count has reached 114,881, up by 3,280. Arizona’s confirmed cases now number 54,586, which is 2,196 higher. In North Carolina, the posted confirmed case count is 53,605, higher by 804.

The figures from the states in the South and West show how fast the disease has spread. They also show the rapid slowing in New York.

Sparsely Populated States Start to See Increases

The Plains States and those of the western Midwest have had almost no cases. These are sparsely populated and stretch over more square miles than almost any other American states, after Alaska. Now, that has started to change.

Montana has had the fewest cases in the country for months. Yet, confirmed cases have started to rise quickly since mid-June. They have hit 734, which is up by 17. The increase was less than 10 in many days in the past three months.

Wyoming also saw a bump in its confirmed cases compared to the past three months. They rose by 33 to hit 1,230.

While confirmed cases and deaths will never be high in these states and their neighbors because of the natural social distancing that low populations with large land areas have, they do show that the disease has spread quickly to states that have had almost no increases since the start of the pandemic.

Italy Increases Plunge

Arguably, at the start of the pandemic, Italy was the hardest-hit nation. It virtually closed down Lombardy and 14 other provinces. Confirmed cases rose by 5,000 for a number of days. Some days, deaths topped 800.

Those increases recently have slowed considerably. Confirmed cases hit 238,720, or 221 higher. Deaths are at 34,657, or up 14. While an extended and stiffly enforced lockdown severely hurt the economy, in terms of confirmed cases and deaths, the move worked.

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