Georgia, Texas and Florida lead the country in coronavirus cases per capita

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Wed, 2020-08-19 17:46 — mike kraft

Georgia, Texas and Florida lead the country in coronavirus cases per capita Colleges across the country are quickly learning it may be next to impossible to create a coronavirus-free environment on campus. Christina Maxouris and Eric Levenson, CNN CNN

(CNN)After adjusting for population, US states in the South and West continue to report the most daily coronavirus cases even after declines over the past few weeks.

Per capita, Georgia has reported the most cases per day over a 7-day average of any state, followed by Texas and Florida. All three states are led by governors who pushed to reopen during the spring, saw major summer surges of cases and are currently pushing to reopen schools.

Texas has issued a mandate requiring face masks, while Florida and Georgia have not. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has gone so far as to keep cities from making stricter rules and has sued the city of Atlanta for trying to require face masks. Georgia has also allowed restaurants, bars and gyms to open at limited capacity

A White House Coronavirus Task Force report dated August 16 obtained by the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) recommends that Georgia do more to fight coronavirus.

The report comes as colleges across the country are quickly learning it may be next to impossible to create a coronavirus-free environment on campus.

Across the US, the virus continues to spread at high rates. The 7-day average of daily new coronavirus cases in the US declined on Monday to 49,000, the first time it's been below 50,000 since July 6. Still, worldwide, that average daily total is surpassed only by India, which has four times the number of people.

The US's 7-day average of new deaths has been over 1,000 per day for the past 23 days. In Florida, officials reported deaths of more than 200 people in a day Tuesday -- for at least the 10th time in the past month. More than 5.5 million Americans have been infected since the start of the pandemic and at least 172,000 have died.

Young people helped drive a nationwide surge of new coronavirus cases over the summer and are now returning to college campuses across the country, seeding new outbreaks. Outbreaks have been traced to off-campus gatherings, sororities, fraternities and dorms, leaving schools to reassess how to proceed with the fall semester.

"It's just extremely difficult to consider yourself to be in a bubble when there is a very high level of community spread around you or when people are coming from all over the country and congregating on college campuses," said Dr. Leana Wen, the former Baltimore City Health Commissioner. "You can't keep coronavirus out." ...

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