America is hardest hit with 74,000 deaths and 1.2 million infections

Coronavirus continue to spread in many American states

America is the most affected country in the world from coronavirus pandemic. More than 74,000 people have now died from the coronavirus and there are more than 1.2 million infections across the country. The infections continue to spread in many states as numbers continue to rise.

Despite the warnings from health experts about the possible death spike, the majority of states have announced to reopen the economy and to lift the restrictions. Some states have already lifted the lockdown and eased restrictions.

Even though, the hardest hit state of New York witnessing a decline in the cases in last few days but in states like Minnesota and Nebraska have seen a surge in new coronavirus cases.  Data is showing that declining cases in hard-hit New York are driving the national trend downwards when more than a third of states are actually still seeing infections increase.

According to Daily mail report- the two Midwest states of Minnesota and Nebraska are showing alarming trends. Minnesota, which has a total of 7,234 cases, has seen a 155 percent increase in new infections in the span of a week. With just over 6,000 cases, Nebraska has seen a 57 percent increase in new infections in a week. Iowa, which has 10,400 infections, has seen a 42 percent increase in cases and Virginia's infections, which are now at 20,200, have increased 31 percent.  

But at the same time, Arkansas and Wyoming are showing the most decline in cases. Arkansas, for example, has seen a 61 percent decline in new cases, bringing the total to nearly 3,500. Meanwhile, Wyoming has seen a 63 percent decline, bringing the total to nearly 600 cases. Hard-hit New York, which has more than 321,000 cases, has seen a decrease of 38 percent in new infections.   

Trends over the past seven days show that Wyoming and Arkansas have seen a decrease in cases of more than 50%, and epicenter New York has seen a decrease of 38%. It also shows that over the past week, new hotspots are emerging, including Minnesota, which has seen an increase of 155% in cases, and Nebraska, where cases have risen by 57%. 

The experts have warned that apart from epicenter New York, data shows the rest of the US is moving in the wrong direction with new confirmed infections per day exceeding 20,000 and deaths per day are well over 1,000. 

The densely packed New York area, consisting of about 20 million people, has been the hardest-hit corner of the country and accounts for at least one third of US deaths. The New York state had more than 321,000 positive cases, and the number of deaths had risen to 19,977. 

A model from the University of Washington this week nearly doubled its projection of COVID-19 deaths in the US to around 134,000 through early August. Dr. Christopher Murray, director of the institute that created the projections, said the increase is largely because most states are expected to ease restrictions by next week. Without stay-at-home orders and similar measures, Murray said 'we would have had exponential growth, much larger epidemics and deaths in staggering numbers'.

An ominous forecast from a University Of Pennsylvania's Wharton School model has predicted there could be 350,000 deaths by the end of June if all states lift stay-at-home orders and allow businesses and restaurants to reopen. 

In comparison, the model predicts that nearly 160,000 deaths will occur by the end of June if people maintain social distancing but all states only partially reopen by lifting emergency declarations, stay-at-home orders and school closures. Data dedicated to tracking how fast COVID-19 is spreading across each state shows that all but seven states appear to have slowed the spread. 

                                                                       Khalid Bhatti