The US state of Massachusetts yesterday recorded more new coronavirus deaths relative to its population than any state in the USA. Not only that, it recorded a higher rate of deaths than any country in the world – by a factor of nearly four.
Massachusetts reported 138 deaths yesterday, a rate of 19.8 per million people. Total deaths are now 4,840 in a population of just under seven million people. That is a death rate of more than 700 per million inhabitants. Another 1,410 people in Massachusetts were newly infected yesterday bringing active cases to 63,785 and the infection rate per million to 9,178. There is no slow-down anywhere in sight.
Close behind Massachusetts yesterday were Rhode Island, Connecticut and New Jersey with deaths per million higher than 14. That’s just in one day. Then followed Michigan, the District of Columbia, New York and seven other states – all above six deaths per million.
All 14 of those US states had higher death rates yesterday than the countries with the highest rates, which were Belgium and the United Kingdom. Refer graph at the top of this page.
Clearly the USA is experiencing an apocalyptic disaster the seriousness of which few commentators and even fewer in federal government seem willing to acknowledge.
Total active cases
The USA clicked over the magic million yesterday, reaching 1,029,194 active infections. This is 43.2 per cent of the entire world’s active cases, despite the USA having just 4.25 per cent of the world’s population.
The USA overall added 25,524 new cases yesterday, which was 28.7 per cent of the entire world’s new cases – well over one quarter.
States in the terrible 200 club
American states which have now lost more than 200 people per million citizens to Covid-19 comprise New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts, Louisiana, Michigan, District of Columbia, Rhode Island, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Illinois, Delaware and Indiana.
The only major countries (more than one million inhabitants) to have lost more than 200 people per million are the nine adjoining nations in Western Europe – Belgium, Spain, Italy, UK, France, Sweden, Netherlands, Ireland and Switzerland – and the USA, which is not in Europe.
The developed countries outside Western Europe with which the USA should be comparable have all kept deaths per million below eight (8.0). These are Japan, South Korea, Australia, New Zealand, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Saudi Arabia, Argentina, Singapore, Malaysia, Jamaica, Kazakhstan, Thailand, Slovakia and Uruguay.
US states which have now lost more than 100 people per million are Colorado, Mississippi, Georgia, Washington and Ohio. Minnesota, Nevada and Virginia have all lost 99. And counting.
Testing per million inhabitants
The USA remains at the lowly ranking of 41st on the Worldometers list of countries by number of coronavirus tests per million inhabitants. For a highly developed country which boasts a strong economy this is appalling – given the extent of the pandemic’s spread across the continent.
It remains a great mystery why so few Americans are currently actively seeking to remove the current federal administration and replace it with one with some basic administrative competence and at least the pretence of concern for its citizens.