As the rate of new cases of COVID-19 continues to drop, the effort to get back to “normal” has become a race between vaccination on one hand and what many experts believe is a careless effort to reopen the economy on the other. The decision by Texas Gov. Gregory Abbott to drop the mask mandate in the nation’s second largest state caused particular consternation among those who want to allow vaccination rates to rise before unmasked public gatherings begin. (This is when Americans can stop wearing face masks according to Dr. Fauci.)

Confirmed cases in the United States number 29,293,090 to date. The rate at which they rise on a daily basis has dropped by two-thirds in the past two months. However, the figure remains about 25% of all those in the world. Fatal cases have reached 530,614, which is a fifth of the global total.

The national vaccination rate has risen steadily for the past three weeks and about 18% of the population has now received at least one dose, while just under 10% have received two shots. A total of 123,232,775 doses have been delivered to date and 93,692,598 shots have been given. (These are the states where the most people are refusing the COVID-19 vaccine.)

The course of the disease is no longer falling in all large states, however. Florida is a particularly worrisome case, and events there suddenly have become a warning to the rest of the country.

Click here to see the state that shows threat to COVID-19 recovery