Haven’t posted on this for a while specifically for US states… Reminder that the blue/salmon chart is cumulative numbers (i.e., since day one), so it reflects counts from the whole epidemic. The second chart (green/orange) represents current case and death growth rates.
Therefore, the first chart shows the total damage by latitude but the second chart shows the current hot-spots.
The first chart doesn’t tell us what we don’t already know. Since about February the latitudes from 40-45 have taken the brunt of the COVID-19 outbreak and experienced the highest number of cases and deaths. These numbers include the recent outbreaks in the southern parts of the US, so despite that attention, they’re still lagging way behind the Northeast in total case and death count.
The second chart tells us part of what the newspapers have been saying. Latitudes 30-35 (Arizona, S. California, Dallas) have seen very high case growth but very low growth in deaths. Same for 25 to 20 (South Texas, Florida). The hardest hit regions in the Northeast, however, are seeing very little case growth or death growth. Lots of thoughts as to what this represents, but very interesting to see that the latitude effect is still in place, the latitude bands are just starting to shift. One thing that I observe, however, is that during the months the virus raged in the northern latitudes, the temperature was cool, heaters were on, and people were indoors (more or less). Now in the southern latitudes we see the reverse. Temperatures are over 100, air conditioners are on, and people are indoors.