Coronavirus in the US: Latest COVID-19 news and case counts

Since the novel coronavirus called SARS-CoV-2 was first detected in the U.S. on Jan. 20, it has spread to at least 639,733 people in the country.

Of the reported cases in the U.S., at least 30,990 people have died as a result of the virus, with 14,073 of those deaths reported in New York, 3,156 in New Jersey, 1,921 in Michigan, 1,103 in Louisiana, 949 in Illinois and 890 related deaths reported in California. Worldwide, more than 2.08 million cases have been reported and 138,487 related deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins virus dashboard. 

[Live Science is tracking case counts and relevant news from each U.S. state. Click on your state in the list below.]

—New York may have reached its peak in COVID-19 cases and possibly related deaths, as Gov. Andrew Cuomo said Monday night (April 13) during a press briefing: "I believe the worst is over if we continue to be smart ... I believe we can start on the path to normalcy, The New York Times reported. 

—In addition, the number of newly hospitalized COVID-19 patients in New York may be leveling off; the number had been growing by about 20% per day, but between Wednesday and Thursday (April 9), it grew by just 1%, The New York Times reported. 

—Governors of seven states — Connecticut, Delaware, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island — have formed a coalition to put together a plan for safely reopening the region, including the economies and schools, the Times reported.

—Five governors have held out on issuing state-wide stay-at-home orders for all residents, according to The New York Times, despite calls to do so. These states include: Arkansas, Iowa, Nebraska, North Dakota and South Dakota. Three other states — Oklahoma, Utah and Wyoming — have partial orders, with some counties and cities issuing their own stay-at-home orders.

Coronavirus memo

Two memorandums sent to President Donald Trump and the National Security Council by trade advisor Peter Navarro lay out alarming forecasts for how hard the spreading coronavirus could hit Americans, according to news sites that obtained the memos. In a memo dated Jan. 29 that was sent to the National Security Council, Navarro writes: "The lack of immune protection or an existing cure or vaccine would leave Americans defenseless in the case of a full-blown coronavirus outbreak on U.S. soil. ... This lack of protection elevates the risk of the coronavirus evolving into a full-blown pandemic, imperiling the lives of millions of Americans," The New York Times reported. In one of the worst-case scenarios that Navarro described, more than half a million Americans could die from the disease, the Times reported.

The other memo, dated Feb. 23 and addressed to President Trump, is also attributed to Navarro. In the memo, according to Axios and the Times, Navarro indicates the need for resources from Congress.

"This is NOT a time for penny-pinching or horse trading on the Hill," Navarro wrote, as reported by Axios. The memo also warned that an “increasing probability of a full-blown COVID-19 pandemic that could infect as many as 100 million Americans, with a loss of life of as many as 1.2 million souls."

At the time of both memos, the president was downplaying the severity of the not-yet-pandemic situation. In a tweet dated to Feb. 24, Trump wrote: "The Coronavirus is very much under control in the USA," Axios reported.

US deaths from coronavirus

At least 30,990 Americans have died to date from the novel coronavirus. A model that infectious disease experts like Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, were using to forecast the total number of deaths from COVID-19 has been revised with better data. At the end of March, a COVID-1 model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington and other models had forecast that even with stay-at-home and other social-distancing measures, 200,000 individuals in the U.S. could ultimately die from this virus.

Updates to one of those models have yielded lower numbers. As of April 7, the IHME model predicts 60,415 people in the United States will have died as a result of COVID-19. The daily death toll from the virus is forecast to peak on April 12 with 2,212 related deaths on that day, according to the IHME model. April 12 saw 1,528 virus-related deaths, according to Worldometers.