Additional Information on US States with increasing COVID-19: Texas (and other states)

Coronavirus studies by Engin Akyurt via pixabay.com

The Johns Hopkins county-wide maps of the US for COVID-19 show high rates of infection in Texas in spots around Pecos county, Potter county, Walker county, Dallas, in the East bordering Louisiana (Panola and Shelby counties), and in the North around Amarillo and bordering Oklahoma and Kansas.  These county maps show how the infection rate is very spotty and concentrates in certain areas.

The state’s Health Department shows a record new case count on May 30 of 1,947 and June 5 of 1,940, but there has been a fairly steady rate of new cases reported for the last month– there were 1,800 new cases on May 15.  The way the cases are graphed on the “Dashboard” makes it difficult to see if the number of daily new cases are increasing or decreasing– the blocks are tiny and hard to differentiate.

The worldometer graphs  (scroll down from the tabulations) are much easier to read and appear to show the same thing, although the numbers are not exactly the same.  There has been an increase in the number of new cases during the last month, with large peaks and valleys.

Regardless of which site you look at, Texas has not shown any abatement in the rate of new cases of COVID-19 appearing.  There’s no evidence of a reduction due to a lockdown as there is in the New York data.  Apparently Texans are not adhering to the precautions of social distancing, mask wearing, hand washing, etc.  Rural parts of the state seem to be little affected, except for the North and East.  One would guess that Texans don’t care or are ignorant of the pandemic.

Cases are also increasing in Utah, Arkansas, North and South Carolina, Mississippi, Tennessee, Puerto Rico, and especially Florida.  A total of 22 states have increasing daily case numbers.  See this Johns Hopkins page  and its subpages for each state’s daily case rate.

Per the Washington Post on June 8:

Since the start of June, 14 states and Puerto Rico have recorded their highest-ever seven-day average of new coronavirus cases since the pandemic began, according to data tracked by The Washington Post: Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Kentucky, New Mexico, North Carolina, Mississippi, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.

That article goes on to discuss rural areas that are currently seeing spikes in cases; it’s worth reading for more details.