Coronavirus cases rise in 33 states

The coronavirus pandemic keeps getting worse, all across the country. Thirty-three states saw their caseloads increase this week, continuing a scary nationwide trend that’s been getting worse since mid-June.

Why it matters: The U.S. is right back in the situation we were afraid of earlier this year, with a rapidly spreading outbreak, strained hospitals, and projections of more than 200,000 deaths by the end of the year.

What we’re watching: New coronavirus cases surged over the past week in places that were already heading quickly in the wrong direction.

• That includes Arizona (a 23% jump over the past week), California (38%), Florida (25%) and Texas (28%). All of those states have experienced dramatic increases for several weeks in a row, and those cases are now threatening to overwhelm some local hospitals.
• Deaths are also beginning to tick up in these hotspots.

Those worsening conditions across the board make clear that these numbers largely are not a product of increased testing, but rather a worsening outbreak.

• Nationwide, testing increased by 7% over the past week. Cases rose by 24%.

Between the lines: Each week, Axios tracks the change in confirmed coronavirus cases in each state. We use a rolling seven-day average to minimize the effects of any abnormalities in how and when new cases are reported.

• Only a tiny sliver of the Northeast — Maine, New Hampshire and Connecticut — had fewer new cases this week than the week before.
• New York, which has seen a steady trend of improvement, held steady. New Jersey, which had been following New York’s trend, saw a 14% increase.

The bottom line: The only way to safely resume even some small semblance of pre-COVID life — whether that’s sports or schools or going out to eat — is to get the virus itself under control. And the U.S. is failing to do that.