When it comes to the Covid-19 pandemic itself, there are actually two Americas—the tri-state region of New York, New Jersey and Connecticut and all the rest of the USA. The rates of testing, positives, hospitalizations and deaths are in two different ball parks.
As of Monday night, the tri-state area, which accounts for 9.7% of the US population had conducted 25% of the nationwide tests and had reported 35% of the positive cases, 48% of the deaths and 71% of the hospitalizations.
Thus, the data on the major variables being reported and blared in the headlines compare as follows between the two regions:
- Number of tests: Tri-state totals are 242,928 or 767 tests per 100,000 population vs. 713,553 and 240 per 100,000 in the balance of the USA (3:1 incidence of tests);
- Number of positives: Tri-state totals are 85,704 and 270 per 100,000 vs. 76,695 and 30 per 100,000 in the balance of the USA (9:1 incidence of positives);
- Number of hospitalizations (est.): Tri-state totals are 15,938 or 50 per 100,000 vs. 8,252 or 2.8 per 100,000 in the balance of the USA (23:1 incidence of hospitalizations);
- Number of deaths: Tri-state totals 1,452 or 4.6 per 100,000 vs. 1,529 or 0.5 persons per 100,000 in the balance of the USA ( 9:1 incidence of deaths).
In short, 90% of the American economy is being shutdown owing to the fact that as of this moment there are 30 infected cases, 2.8 hospitalizations and 0.5 deaths per 100,000 population outside the tri-state area. Of course, all illnesses and deaths are to be regretted and we do not claim any expertise in epidemiology.
But scientists who are experts have been all over the case, conducting gene-sequencing analysis of cases from all over the world and USA in nearly real time. And as USA Today reported this morning, there appears to be different strains of the coronavirus: