Coronavirus Update: Is the U.S. the Epicenter of the Pandemic?

As of Monday, 760,000 cases of coronavirus have been confirmed in the U.S., more than three times the number of any other country (I’m leaving out China, since its official numbers are inaccurate). Pundits have cited these numbers in comparing the U.S. policy response unfavorably to other countries fighting the pandemic.

However, adjusting for population size, the U.S. has about as many cases as most of Western Europe, and is well below Spain and Italy. Singapore had remarkable success in containing the virus initially, but its numbers have skyrocketed lately, with cases doubling over the past few days. If it continues on this trajectory, Singapore will soon reach the per capita caseloads of Western Europe.

While the coronavirus is devastating many America metropolitan areas, and policymakers should have acted sooner to contain it, the U.S. does not seem to be faring worse than comparable countries. We’ve ramped up testing to among the highest levels in the world, and the growth in new cases is slowing across states. Still, there’s a long way to go before a full reopening, which requires higher testing and a contact-tracing apparatus.

The per capita death toll in the U.S. is lower than that in most of Western Europe, and well below the U.K. and France. While innumerable factors contribute to the fatality rate, the U.S. medical system seems to be doing a comparatively good job of treating COVID-19 patients.