Despite case numbers that are showing signs of a potential downward trend, Arizona still leads the world in average new confirmed COVID-19 cases per capita.
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The state is reporting an average of 121.6 newly confirmed cases over the past seven days according to data from John Hopkins University. California, the second-highest tracked jurisdiction in the world, comes in at 109.5.
Five days ago, it appeared that the Republic of Ireland was going to rocket past Arizona, as well as every other place in the world.
The COVID-19 UK variant, dubbed B117, which studies show is more contagious than the variants currently found in the United States, makes up 45% of Ireland’s new COVID-19 infections. Fourteen days ago, the country posted a seven-day average new confirmed case number of 27.4. It skyrocketed to 132.7 5 days ago, before starting to decline.
Arizona is no stranger to being at the top of the COVID-19 charts. The state has been the top hotspot in the world at least three times now.
The first instance occurred in early July when the country’s sunbelt states experienced a late spring surge. The state again made the top spot-on January 4 and remained there until January 10 when Ireland became the world’s top hotspot. However, the change was short lived as Arizona posted a world record of 134.7 average new confirmed cases per 100,000 people.
Leading the world in new COVID-19 deaths per capita
Newly confirmed cases is not the only metric that Arizona leads the world in. According to the same dataset, Arizona is also leading the world in new COVID-19 deaths per 100,000 people over the past seven days.
The data shows that the state is experiencing 2.16 average new deaths from COVID-19, far higher than the runner up, Czechia, at 1.64.
The state has the eleventh highest per capita cumulative death count in the world at 151.7 per 100,000. New Jersey has the highest at 228.8.
