There’s good news and bad news. Anecdotally, my observation is that while I’m still seeing people around me catch it, their symptoms seem to be mild. So as long as you are vaccinated to some level, it seems to be less of a concern. On the flip side, I’m seeing a jump in the numbers in Europe. That’s usually the canary in the coal mine before the US East Coast numbers go up, then the rest of the country. Regardless, I’m only doing this for four more weeks since my free time will be in short supply after that.
This weekly update of cases is showing that the national average of daily new cases has been fairly steady for the past 3 weeks. This week the 14-day average of daily new cases decreased by 1.7% compared to a decrease of 0.2% last week. It brings the national 2 week average down to 31.4 new cases per 100 000 people.
This first map shows the rate of new daily cases per 100 000 people. In my opinion, states have the spread of the virus under control if they can keep that down below 3/100k. There are no states below that level. The closest is New Hampshire at 12.0. There have been no states below 3/100k for eight weeks now. 32 states are above the 24/100k mark with Colorado the highest at 59/100k. There were 31 states above that mark last week.
The second map shows the increase or decrease in the per capita rate of new cases over the past week compared to the week before. It is worth noting that this map only shows the difference from last week in order to highlight local surges or declines.
For the other places I’m tracking, here are the rates and percentages. I’ve been tracking the large cities and select countries for comparison. Those with rates lower than 3/100k, higher than 24/100k, or those with increases or decreases more than 20% have been put in bold :
Illinois: 31/100k, stayed the same
Chicago: 26/100k, down 2%
New York City: 30/100k, down 16%
Los Angeles county: 44/100k, up 1%
North Carolina: 26/100k, down 22%
Canada: 6.1/100k, down 22%
Ontario: 6.4/100k, up 31%
Waterloo region: 5.6/100k, up 48%
Quebec: 8.5/100k, up 17%
Montreal: 6.0/100k, down 24%
India: 1.03/100k, up 38%
Italy: 89/100k, up 89%
France: 93/100k, up 33%
Spain: 38/100k, up 40%
Iran: 0.26/100k, up 37%
South Korea: 13.7/100k, down 6%
China: <0.01/100k, down 49%
The Prodigal Chicagoan 