According to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker, the number of global cases has reached 11,579,837, after rising 160,308 in the past day. In most days over the past week, the number has been higher by 100,000. On June 29, World Health Organization Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said, “Although many countries have made some progress, globally the pandemic is actually speeding up.” The four nations with the highest number of confirmed cases are the United States, Brazil, India and Russia.

The focus of the spread moved away from Europe two months ago. As little as three weeks ago, it appeared that the United States would drop off the list of nations with rapidly rising confirmed cases. The large hotspots had moved to Russia, India, Brazil, Peru and Chile, where total confirmed cases soared.

However, the U.S. total recently has added to this large global surge, and America has become a major hotspot again. The American jump in case count has become much worse during the past several days, since the disease moved from the badly battered Northeast and Michigan and Illinois to states in the south and west.

Active cases worldwide are up to 4,773,163, and they are 41% of the total of global confirmed cases. The recovered case count is 6,269,860, which is 108,131 higher. The positive difference between the numbers of recovered cases and active cases worldwide has shown improvement. It has moved above 1.4 million, one of the few good signs as the pandemic’s spread continues.

Global fatal cases have hit 536,814, a one-day increase of 3,034. At the current pace, the figure still could pass 600,000 by late July.

As noted, the acceleration of the spread of the disease worldwide is largely because of an explosion of confirmed cases in America. The increase in confirmed cases there has been by more than 40,000 each day over the past week, and on two days it topped 50,000. Today, confirmed cases in America were at 2,992,350, up by a staggering 60,303. Dr. Anthony Fauci warned that the increase could soon top 100,000 per day. The confirmed cases figure may reach 3 million in a day.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) commented that the actual U.S. case figure may be above 20 million and many of these people have no symptoms. The official U.S. confirmed case count is 26% of the world’s total.

Several large states are responsible for the U.S. swell in confirmed cases, including the three largest by population: California, Texas and Florida. These three states have about 26% of the total U.S. population. Increases are not isolated to these states though. The numbers of confirmed cases are also rising quickly in Arizona, Arkansas, Georgia, Idaho, Nevada, Kansas, Tennessee and Oklahoma. There is a worry that the extent of the very widespread number of new cases geographically could trigger another sharp rise in states hit early, which include New York, New Jersey and Michigan.

Active U.S. COVID-19 cases number 1,959,322, and recovered cases have reached 900,629, after rising by 21,636. It remains a bad sign that the active case count is so much higher than that of recovered ones. American coronavirus fatalities have hit 132,399, up by 392. They are on a pace to top 140,000 by the end of July.

One theory suggests that American deaths will pick up in the coming weeks as confirmed cases have risen sharply. There can be a lag of as much as two weeks between when a person becomes infected and when serious symptoms arise. The number of asymptomatic cases in America may be well into the millions as well. That means much of the spread is hard to track.

However, people with new confirmed cases have an average of 15 years younger than several months ago. This is largely because of the ages of people infected in the south recently. Younger people are less likely to die from the disease than those over 65.

Los Angeles and Houston Hit Particularly Hard

The four largest states by population now have the four largest counts of confirmed COVID-19 cases. These include New York, California, Florida and Texas. In two of these states, their largest counties are primary engines of the spread of the disease.

Los Angeles County, which includes the City of Los Angeles, is the largest county in America. It has a population of 10,105,518, out of California’s 39,512,223. California has 271,684 confirmed cases, up by 11,529. Deaths in the state have added six to total 6,337. Los Angeles County has 115,133 confirmed cases, higher by 7,877. Deaths in the county stand at 3,454.

The situation in Texas is similar. Harris County, home to Houston, is the third-largest county, based on a population of 4,698,619. The population of Texas is 28,995,881. Confirmed cases in Harris County up to 35,913, with 400 COVID-19 fatalities. The Texas confirmed cases count has increased by 5,318 to 200,557. Deaths number 2,655, after adding 18.

Deaths in Spain and Italy Shrink Toward Zero

Spain and Italy were among the hardest hit nations early in the spread of the pandemic. Their confirmed case counts and deaths are still high. However, the increase in deaths per day due to the coronavirus has dwindled toward zero in each country.

Spain’s confirmed cases count still puts it ninth among all nations at 251,789, an increase of 1,244. Deaths, however, only rose by three to 28,388. Fatal case growth per day was over 700 for most of late March into early April.

Italy currently ranks 12th among all nations based on confirmed cases at 241,819, up by 208. Deaths number 34,869, which is eight more than the day before. The increase in fatal cases reached 919 on March 27.