🎙️ Voice is AI-generated. Inconsistencies may occur.
As cases of COVID-19 increase across the United States, those states with the most cases are seeing some of the highest mortality rates in connection to the disease.
According to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center, the U.S. now has over 400,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and over 13,000 deaths. The country's mortality rate is currently 3.2 percent.
However, when divided up by state, Washington, where the first confirmed U.S. case of COVID-19 case was discovered, has the worst death rate among states with more than 5,000 confirmed cases. There have been 403 deaths and 8,682 confirmed cases in the state, which means 4.6 percent of those who tested positive have died, according to the Worldometer coronavirus tracker.
Michigan has the next highest death rate with 4.5 percent of the 18,970 who have tested positive dying with COVID-19. New York is third on the list, and has by far the most confirmed COVID-19 cases with 142,384 confirmed cases, making it the epicenter of the novel coronavirus in the U.S. The state has a COVID-19 mortality rate of 3.85 percent for those who contracted the virus.
Georgia and Louisiana round out the top five highest death rates in states with over 5,000 confirmed cases. Georgia has 9,156 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and 348 deaths, giving it a mortality rate of 3.8 percent, slightly less than New York. Louisiana has 16,284 confirmed cases and 582 deaths – a mortality rate of 3.5 percent.
However, states with far fewer than 5,000 cases currently have the highest mortality rates in the country. Kentucky leads all states with a 5.6 percent rate, with 1,149 confirmed cases and 65 deaths. Oklahoma ranks second, in a tie with Michigan, among all states with a 4.5 percent mortality death rate on 1,472 confirmed cases and 67 deaths. Vermont is fifth overall in mortality rate with 575 confirmed cases and 23 deaths, giving the COVID-19 pandemic a 4 percent mortality rate in the state.
The U.S. recorded 1,970 deaths Tuesday, the highest number of daily deaths thus far during the novel coronavirus pandemic. On Sunday, President Donald Trump again warned that the U.S. will be in for a "rough" two weeks as health officials believe the country is nearing the peak of the pandemic. The Trump administration has already extended the national health guidelines to slow the spread through April 30.
Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coordinator for the Coronavirus Task Force, said Tuesday that models have cut projections of deaths down even further than the previously projected 100,000 deaths. The University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation now has the projected deaths at 60,000. Birx attributed the lower number to Americans abiding by health guidelines.
"We have never attempted anything like this, at least in my lifetime, where we've had these 30 days to stop the spread. We've not ever put out information like that ... and I think you can see that across the world we're learning that when you give communities the information that they need to understand what's going on and you're transparent, that communities can be part of the solution in a transparent and amazing way," Birx said.
"When I first started here five weeks ago, I said that we will win based on what the communities are able to do as a community of Americans and I think we're all really deeply impressed about what they were able to do," she added.
