Coronavirus in the U.S.: Latest Map and Case Count

At least 3,293 new coronavirus deaths and 238,189 new cases were reported in the United States on Dec. 17. Over the past week, there has been an average of 213,165 cases per day, an increase of 18 percent from the average two weeks earlier.

As of Friday morning, more than 17,256,100 people in the United States have been infected with the coronavirus and at least 310,900 have died, according to a New York Times database.

A year that started out normal — with packed sports arenas, busy airports and handshake-heavy political campaigning — quickly became defined by the pandemic.

In late February, there were just a few dozen known cases in the United States, most of them linked to travel. But by summer, the virus had torn through every state, infecting more people than the combined populations of Connecticut and Oklahoma. And in the fall, the national death toll exceeded 310,900 — more than the population of Lincoln, Neb.

American life has been fundamentally reordered because of the virus. Concerts, parades and high school basketball games continue to be called off. Countless people have found themselves jobless and struggling to afford housing. Many schools and colleges have held few or no in-person classes this fall. More than 397,000 cases have been linked to colleges and universities over the course of the pandemic. Thousands more cases have been identified in elementary, middle and high schools.

The New York Times has found that official tallies in the United States and in more than a dozen other countries have undercounted deaths during the coronavirus outbreak because of limited testing availability.

The New York Times is engaged in a comprehensive effort to track information on every coronavirus case in the United States, collecting information from federal, state and local officials around the clock. The numbers in this article are being updated several times a day based on the latest information our journalists are gathering from around the country. The Times has made that data public in hopes of helping researchers and policymakers as they seek to slow the pandemic and prevent future ones.

The Times’s data collection for this page is based on reports from state and local health agencies, a process that was unchanged by the Trump administration's requirement that hospitals bypass the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and send all patient information to a central database in Washington.

The places hit hardest

The coronavirus has moved across the country in distinct phases, devastating one region, then another.

The Northeast experienced the worst this spring, as temporary morgues were deployed in New York City. Over the summer, cases spiked across the Sun Belt, prompting many states to tighten restrictions just weeks after reopening. By early fall, the virus was filling rural hospitals in the Midwest and West as it devastated communities that had for months avoided the pandemic’s worst. And as 2021 approached, the virus was simply everywhere, with cases emerging at or near record levels in much of the country.

The United States surpassed 3,000 deaths in a single day, and experts fear the worst is still to come.

The nation’s most populous places have all suffered tremendously. In Cook County, Ill., which includes Chicago, more than 7,200 people have died. In Los Angeles County, Calif., more than 488,000 people have had the virus, more than in most states. And in New York City, about one of every 345 residents has died.

But unlike in the early days of the pandemic, it is not so simple to say that big cities have been hit hardest. In the summer, cities along the United States-Mexico border added cases at the highest rates. For much of the fall, small and mid-sized cities in the Upper Midwest and West added cases at the highest rates. And by December, cities, suburbs and small towns alike were setting records.

Because outbreaks in group settings where large numbers of people are in close quarters have been a major driver of the pandemic, The Times has paid special attention to cases in nursing homes, food processing plants, correctional facilities and colleges.

Information on these cases comes directly from official releases by governments, companies and institutions. The tables below show cases that have been identified since the beginning of the pandemic, and with the exception of the table for colleges and universities, only show groups of cases where 50 or more are related to a specific site.

Cases at colleges and universities

Some universities have decided to hold most or all classes online, but many others have reopened their campuses, often with extensive procedures and rules governing behavior and testing. In August and September, as the fall term began, college towns saw some of the highest per capita case growth in the country. And by November, as cases surged across the country, tens of thousands more cases emerged at universities.

More than 6,600 cases have emerged in college athletic departments.

More than 397,000 cases among students and employees at more than 1,800 institutions have been reported over the course of the pandemic, according to a Times database. At least 90 deaths have been reported, many of them in the spring, and most of them among employees, not students. But at least four students have died in recent weeks after contracting the virus.

Below are the 10 states with the most cases reported on campuses.

See the complete list and details about Covid-19 cases at colleges and universities »

Cases in jails and prisons

In American jails and prisons, more than 400,000 people have been infected and at least 1,800 inmates and correctional officers have died. During interviews with dozens of inmates across the country, many said they were frightened and frustrated by what prison officials have acknowledged has been an uneven response to the virus.

After more than 2,200 prisoners tested positive, a judge told San Quentin to reduce its population.

Sandy Dowell, 51, an inmate at Swannanoa Correctional Center for Women, a prison in North Carolina, said she feared for her life if the virus spreads inside the facility. She has lung disease, asthma and high blood pressure, and said she believed prisons were disregarding the lives of inmates in their handling of Covid-19. “A life is a life, isn't it?” she said. “I mean, isn’t everyone’s life worth something?”

In early December, Ms. Dowell tested positive for the coronavirus.

Cases at nursing homes and long-term care facilities

Coronavirus cases have been reported in more than 28,000 nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, according to data collected by The New York Times from states, counties, the federal government and facilities themselves. More than 788,000 residents and employees of those homes have been infected, and more than 106,000 have died. That means that more than 35 percent of deaths from the virus in the United States have been tied to nursing homes and other long-term care facilities.

Read more about the isolation, depression and atrophy facing many nursing home residents as lockdowns persist.

“This disease creates the potential for a perfect storm in a long-term care facility — large groups of vulnerable people living together and a highly transmissible virus that may not cause symptoms in those who care for them,” said Dr. Daniel Rusyniak, the chief medical officer for Indiana’s state social services agency.

See the complete list and details about Covid-19 cases in more than 16,000 nursing homes across the country »

Cases at food production facilities

Early in the pandemic, cases emerged by the hundreds in food processing facilities. The outbreaks disrupted the country’s meat supply and led some of the hardest-hit plants to temporarily close.

In July, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported more than 16,000 infections and 86 deaths tied to meat and poultry processing. But those numbers are almost certainly an undercount. Only 28 states provided data to the C.D.C., and many states and food processing companies have refused to provide case totals. Other large outbreaks have emerged on farms, in fruit or vegetable processing facilities and at plants where pet food is made.

Other significant clusters

The coronavirus has followed Americans wherever they gathered, spreading early this year, on cruise ships and at business conferences. As the country has reopened, new clusters have emerged at churches, restaurants and workplaces. Read more here about some of the country’s less-noticed coronavirus clusters. Because many states do not provide information about where the virus spread, no listing of clusters and local outbreaks will be complete.

About the data

Read more about the methodology and download county-level data for coronavirus cases in the United States from The New York Times on GitHub.