Back in April, Californians didn’t see this coming.
But on Wednesday, the Golden State overtook New York for the dreadful distinction of recording the most coronavirus cases in the country since the pandemic began. Statistically, it shouldn’t be too surprising that the largest state in the country with 40 million residents would account for the largest number of infections.
As the graphic below shows, New York was the epicenter of the virus in the early months of the pandemic, and by the end of April the Empire State was reporting more than 6 times as many cases as California. Fast-forward to June and July, and it’s easy to see their fortunes — and coronavirus infections curves — cross.
On Wednesday, New York was reporting 408,886 cumulative cases in the state, and California’s reported 413,576 on Wednesday, according to data from the COVID Tracking Project.
California’s 7-day average for new daily cases is over 9,000 this week, while New York is averaging around 700 new cases a day, showing how much faster the virus is currently spreading here than in New York. And don’t look now, but Florida isn’t far behind, reporting more new cases in the past week than California.
To be clear, with twice the population of New York, California is still in the middle of the pack when it comes to cases and deaths when adjusted for population since the pandemic began. California has 105 cases per 10,000 residents, while New York has a rate of 210. But the severity and intensity of the outbreak in New York overwhelmed their health care system and 25,058 people died in New York, more than three times the 7,755 who have died in California.
