As of mid-June, there have been more than 2 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, including over 115,000 deaths. Novel coronavirus cases tend to cluster in certain areas — three states have had fewer than 1,000 confirmed cases, while five states have surpassed 100,000 coronavirus cases.

24/7 Wall St. reviewed data on confirmed COVID-19 cases, as reported by local and state government health agencies since the outbreak began through June 14, 2020, to determine the states with the highest number of confirmed cases per capita. We calculated the confirmed cases for every 100,000 people in each state using one-year population data from the U.S. Census Bureau’s 2018 American Community Survey. Data is as of June 14 for all states except for South Carolina and Connecticut, for which data is accurate as of June 13, as well as Oregon and Oklahoma, for which data is accurate as of June 12.

Northeastern states like New York and New Jersey that were initially the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak still have the highest numbers of confirmed cases per 100,000 residents. However, the majority of those states have had a decline in new cases, while many states that still rank relatively low for total confirmed cases per capita have recorded a sharp increase in new cases. Of the eight states to average more than 10 new daily cases per 100,000 residents from June 8 to June 14, just one, Maryland, ranks among the 10 states with the highest number of confirmed cases per 100,000 for the duration of the pandemic so far. 

At the same time, states like Arizona, Arkansas, and Alabama, which had relatively few cases per capita when the pandemic began, recorded their highest daily number of new cases within the last week. Within each of these states, several metropolitan areas have become hot spots for the virus. These are the cities where COVID-19 is growing the fastest.

New COVID-19 cases in the U.S. began declining in April, as states enacted strict social distancing measures to reduce transmission of the virus. As many areas started to lift stay-at-home orders and allowed nonessential businesses to open, the number of new cases began to increase in many of those states. These are every state’s rules for social distancing and reopening.

Click here to see the states with the highest number of COVID-19 cases