COVID-19: Texas Passes California to Become Hardest-Hit State

Health and Healthcare

Published: October 26, 2020 7:16 am

For over two months, California, the largest state by population, also had the most COVID-19 confirmed cases. That changed today as the Texas confirmed case count topped it. Texas has 909,968 and California 909,344, according to the Bing COVID-19 Tracker.

Deaths from the disease in Texas total 18,042. Fatal cases in California number 17,358. Neither is close to the figure in New York State, which was ravaged early and has a total fatal case count of 33,059, against confirmed cases of 500,201.

Notably, California’s population is much larger than that of Texas. It is the largest state by the measure at 39,512,223. Texas is second in the nation at 28,995,881.

Confirmed cases are concentrated in the two largest cities in each state. In Texas, Harris County, home to Houston, has 158,758 confirmed cases and 2,783 fatal cases. It is the third-largest county in America based on population at 4,698,619. In California, Los Angeles County has 296,323 confirmed cases and 6,989 fatal ones. It is America’s largest county based on a population of 10,105,518.

U.S. confirmed cases have reached 8,725,151, with COVID-19 deaths at 228,477. In a new article in Nature Medicine, the IHME COVID-19 Forecasting Team said that deaths could reach 511,373 by February 28, 2021. If mask-wearing rates rise from current nationwide levels to use by 100% of the population, the number could be reduced by as much as 129,574.

Global confirmed cases of the disease reached 42,990,032 today, up by 376,510 from the day before. Global confirmed cases often have risen by over 350,000 a day recently. This is above the sustained figure for any period since the spread of COVID-19 began.

Worldwide, fatal cases have reached 1,153,625, after a one-day gain of 3,843.

Currently ranked second in the world based on confirmed COVID-19 cases, India has 7,909,959. The coronavirus death count there stands at 119,043. Health care experts say that because of the size of the nation geographically, and its relatively primitive health care systems, more than 60 million people actually have been infected, which is about eight times the official number. The Indian Council of Medical Research puts the figure as high as 63 million.

Brazil has a confirmed case count of 5,394,128. New cases recently have risen at a rate of over 20,000 a day. Its COVID-19 deaths number is 157,163. As with India, Brazil’s figures are too low. It is nearly impossible to count cases in the nation’s interior. In the poorest parts of the largest cities, packed with impoverished people, the disease also is difficult to track.

Russia has 1,531,224 cases, and fatal cases there number 26,269. Most experts say the death count is far too low to be real. It may be that the government has kept counts down to make it appear it has the pandemic under control. Confirmed cases rose by 17,347 yesterday, among the highest one-day counts in Russia since the pandemic began.

Also on the list of nations with over a million confirmed cases, France has 1,138,510 and 34,761 fatal cases. Argentina reached 1,090,589, and coronavirus deaths there number 28,896. Meanwhile, Spain has 1,046,132 confirmed cases, with 34,752 fatal cases. Colombia has 1,015,885 confirmed cases and 30,154 fatalities.