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Coronavirus in the US: Tracking cases and deaths

The number of Covid-19 cases is expected to increase significantly due to better testing.

National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Tony Fauci (left) speaks to President Trump during a tour of the National Institutes of Health’s Vaccine Research Center in Bethesda, Maryland, on March 3, 2020.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images

Editor’s note: This article is not currently being updated. You can find updates on US case counts, deaths, and testing with our new tracker and the latest case counts on this Johns Hopkins tracker. Or follow Vox’s coverage of the coronavirus outbreak here.


Since December 31, when China first reported cases of the novel coronavirus disease to the World Health Organization, it has spread to dozens of countries around the world, including the United States. As of March 18, there are more than 205,000 confirmed cases of Covid-19 worldwide, with major outbreaks in mainland China, Italy, Spain, Iran, and South Korea.

Including those repatriated from the Diamond Princess cruise ship, more than 6,500 cases have been reported across the United States.

Covid-19 initially arrived in the US in two ways. First, infected people returned to the US from China, where the virus originated and where the vast majority of cases have been reported. Second, people came into contact with someone who had been to China or to another country with Covid-19. Since February 28, new cases of Covid-19 have been reported in the US with no link to travel, which means the disease has been spreading inside the country.

In February, there was little testing done by the US, and many of the original test kits the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) sent out could not be validated by testing labs. Another problem was that the testing was focused only on people who’d been to China.

On February 28, the CDC said the problem with the kits was fixed, and it was sending kits to labs around the country along with new, expanded testing criteria. Testing has still been slow to roll out, however.

Health experts say this means the number of cases will rise in the coming weeks. That doesn’t mean the virus is spreading any faster.

Trevor Bradford, an associate member at the Fred Hutchinson Cancer Research Center, tweeted that case numbers are rising because there is “likely a backlog of cases to be detected”:

We’ll update this post as more cases are reported and more information becomes available.


Reported cases, reported deaths, and recovered cases (as of March 18, 11:38 am Eastern):

California:

  • 6519 cases
  • 13 deaths
  • 6 out of 6519 recovered

New York:

  • 1717 cases
  • 16 deaths

Washington state:

  • 1041 cases
  • 55 deaths
  • 1 out of 1041 recovered

New Jersey:

  • 267 cases
  • 3 deaths

Massachusetts:

  • 218 cases
  • 1 out of 218 recovered

Florida:

  • 217 cases
  • 7 deaths

Louisiana

  • 196 cases
  • 4 deaths

Colorado

  • 185 cases
  • 2 deaths

Illinois:

  • 161 cases
  • 1 death
  • 2 out of 161 recovered

Georgia:

  • 147 cases
  • 1 death

Texas:

  • 132 cases
  • 2 deaths

Pennsylvania:

  • 115 cases

Wisconsin:

  • 90 cases
  • 1 out of 90 recovered

Tennessee

  • 78 cases

Connecticut:

  • 68 cases

Oregon:

  • 68 cases
  • 2 deaths

Ohio

  • 67 cases

Virginia

  • 67 cases
  • 2 deaths

Michigan

  • 66 cases

North Carolina

  • 66 cases

Maryland:

  • 60 cases

Minnesota

  • 60 cases

Nevada

  • 56 cases
  • 1 death

Utah

  • 51 cases

South Carolina:

  • 47 cases
  • 1 death

Alabama

  • 39 cases

Maine

  • 32 cases

District of Columbia

  • 31 cases

Indiana

  • 30 cases
  • 2 deaths

Iowa

  • 29 cases

Kentucky

  • 27 cases
  • 1 death

New Hampshire:

  • 26 cases

Nebraska

  • 24 cases

New Mexico

  • 23 cases

Rhode Island:

  • 23 cases

Arkansas

  • 22 case

Mississippi

  • 22 cases

Arizona:

  • 21 cases
  • 1 out of 21 recovered

Oklahoma

  • 19 cases

Kansas

  • 18 cases
  • 1 death

Vermont

  • 17 cases

Delaware

  • 16 case

Missouri

  • 16 cases

Wyoming

  • 15 cases

Hawaii

  • 14 cases

South Dakota

  • 11 cases
  • 1 death

Montana

  • 10 cases

Idaho

  • 9 cases

North Dakota

  • 5 cases

West Virginia

  • 1 case

This data is based on reports from Johns Hopkins and the CDC. The numbers reported may vary depending on the source.

These numbers don’t include the 46 repatriated cases from the Diamond Princess cruise ship.

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