As the number of sick patients continues to rise, the numbers who die every day have a devastating impact on the health of the US health care system and the economy. 
The state of New York tops the statewide list of people diagnosed with COVID-19, but there are also signs of rapid spread of the virus in many other states. Some states, like Washington, have slowed the rate of growth, while others lag only days or weeks behind New Yorkers. The spread of the disease in the US shows exponential growth in a nation that has become the epicenter of a global pandemic. Cases outnumber those of other countries with similar outbreaks such as Australia, Canada and New Zealand. 

The New York Times reports that the coronavirus has reached cities and suburbs in the Midwest, where cases are rapidly increasing, with more than 80 percent of confirmed cases in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota in cities or suburbs. Outbreaks are also occurring in a number of small Midwestern factory towns, while the number of cases is gradually leveling off in major cities, according to the CDC. 
The number of new cases and deaths is declining to small extend, suggesting that widespread lockouts in March and April have effectively slowed the spread of the virus. 

Moreover, a new study by researchers at Columbia University found that about 36,000 fewer Americans would have died from the virus if the US had introduced social isolation restrictions a week earlier, in early March. 
The discovery of a novel coronavirus that is spreading in the United States suggests that thousands of Americans have already been infected, reducing the chances of eradicating the early-stage outbreak.
 
As US health officials work to determine how two California women contracted the novel coronavirus that has spread worldwide, experts are calling the cases the first major outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States in more than a decade. The two women, both San Francisco Bay Area residents, tested positive for the virus on February 26, the researchers said, and their cases are likely to have reduced the COVID-19 outbreak here. 
The cases are the first known spread of COVID-19 in the United States, meaning they had no travel history to the affected area and were not exposed to anyone known to have COVID-19. 

The state has been at the center of the American outbreak since January, when Washington reported the first case of coronavirus in the United States and documented the most cases and deaths associated with the infection in that country. On February 28, Santa Clara County officials reported two more cases of COVID-19 of no known origin in some southern counties. 

The high number of cases in the United States, now declared a pandemic by the World Health Organization, is due to missed opportunities and restrictive federal guidelines on testing. At the same time, the high numbers can also be attributed to the fact that the state diagnosed its first cases before the rest of America and was forced to start testing, monitoring, and responding. The per capita figures could better reflect how overwhelmed the country's health system is and how badly affected it is by the virus. 

Coronavirus cases have been found in almost all US states and have already infected more than 1 million people. Taking into account all possible cases, coronavirus has a mortality rate of about one percent, Fauci estimates, and it is already finding its way into people's blood.