International case statistics show a range of trends in recent weeks.
US cases have skyrocketed in recent weeks, as amply covered by the media. EU and UK cases also skyrocketed (left panel), starting a couple of weeks ahead of the US, but strong government mandated lockdown measures have brought new caseloads down quite a bit. Canada also has a large growth in cases, but (1) much smaller rates than US and (b) like the US, little sign of the trend reversing. That seems strange to me since in the past Canada has done a good job of keeping numbers much lower than the US.
Looking at individual EU countries (right panel), France, Italy and Spain all shot up and came down again, echoing behavior of EU as a whole. France in particular was doing even worse than the US, but also took severe measures which quickly brought new cases down. Like Canada, Germany’s numbers have always been better than other countries, but have not come down recently, though they have leveled off.
Within the US, cases and deaths have been very unevenly distributed among states. States such as South Dakota have both caseloads and death rates several times higher than others such as Massachusetts.
Some of the worst-hit states have seen declining case numbers lately. Some may be responding to government mask mandates and other orders, such as in North Dakota (not shown here but with similar numbers to South Dakota). South Dakota’s governor continues to resist any social distancing orders, but SD’s numbers have also dropped. Reporting artifact? Increased social distancing based on individual behavior? Another factor?