Georgia, Texas, Florida lead in cases per capita

After adjusting for population, U.S. 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 sevenday average of any state, followed by Texas and Florida. The 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 allowed restaurants, bars and gyms to open at limited capacity.

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

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

Across the U.S., the virus continues to spread at high rates. The seven-day average of daily new coronavirus cases in the U.S. 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 U.S.’ seven-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.

Though conditions in some areas have improved modestly in recent weeks, the task force said Georgia remains in the red zone for severity of the outbreak as measured by rate of case growth and test positivity, the AJC reported.

The AJC reported that the White House Coronavirus Task Force continues to recommend that Georgia close bars and gyms, restrict indoor dining at restaurants to one-quarter capacity in the highest risk counties, and limit social gatherings to 10 or fewer people, even within families.

In a statement to CNN, Kemp’s office said the governor and Georgia Department of Health “Urge Georgians to wear a mask, watch their distance, wash their hands, and follow public health guidelines.”