Mississippi COVID-19 cases rising faster than nearly every country in the world — except three

Published 5:50 pm Wednesday, July 8, 2020

New COVID-19 cases are rising more quickly in Mississippi than nearly every country, yes, country, in the world.

In the last seven days, Mississippi has reported approximately 5,000 new COVID-19 cases. With a population of 2.9 million people, the state has seen 1,700 new cases per million people in the past seven days.

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The numbers recorded by the Centers for Disease and Control Prevention were reported in a story by the New York Times Wednesday.

Adjusted for population size, only Bahrain, Qatar and Oman outrank the state when looking at the number of new cases in the last seven days.

Arizona (3,300 new cases per million people) has become the COVID-19 epicenter of the world, with cases rising faster than every country in the world. Florida (2,700 new cases per million people) and South Carolina (2,300 new cases per million people) are not far behind, ranking No. 2 and No. 3 when compared to worldwide cases.

Bahrain (2,200 new cases per million people) ranks fourth on a list ranking the seven-day growth of virus cases among the 50 states and the countries with the world’s worst outbreaks.

Louisiana (2,000 new cases per million people) ranks just behind Bahrain at No. 5, followed by the Middle Eastern countries of Qatar and Oman.

Thirteen states, including most states in the South, are ranked in the Top 20 places with the most new virus cases in the last seven days.

Above is a chart that ranks countries and states with the most confirmed new cases over the past week, adjusted for population size.