Day nine. Once again presenting the graphs of COVID-19 cases and deaths per million people for various countries that have been discussed in the “news” in the last few weeks. Remember that these are per-capita graphs, which make the data easier to interpret in some ways and harder in some other ways.

In yesterday’s charts, it appeared that the rate of new case reports had begun to slow down in Italy and the United States. How does the chart look today, March 26th, 2020?

Cases per million people

Italy, yes, it looks like the case rate is slowing down. United States, not so much.

Here are the number of new cases reported each of the last five days in each country. Obviously it’s hard to find a trend after 5 days, so I wouldn’t put too much stock in either column – but the stories for Italy and the USA look like different stories.

Regardless, it’s far too early to think about relaxing social distancing measures in either place. We’ll keep an eye on these numbers over the coming weeks.

Deaths per million people

Sadly, it’s time for another rescale, as the total number of deaths in Italy goes above 7,500 in a country of 60 million, for 125 total deaths per million people. Spain is not far behind with 73 deaths per million people.

You can find the data from the European Centers for Disease Control’s Coronavirus Source Data site (download the CSV file from the “Full dataset” lin), and you are welcome to use my Microsoft Excel template. I’m working on some new graphs for future updates, you should too!

Update tomorrow, and every day until this pandemic is over.