
The number of confirmed cases in the United States has more than doubled since March, with more than 4.8 million cases confirmed so far this year, according to a new report by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
But while the spike is unprecedented, it’s still not a full-blown pandemic.
More than half of the confirmed cases this year have come from the western United States.
In the past, the virus has generally affected the Northeast and Midwest, but this year the spread has been concentrated in the East and Southeast.
While many of the cases have been in people who are close to one another, others have come across people in groups or social circles.
In New York City, for example, the number of cases has been higher than usual, with at least 8,300 confirmed cases and at least 4,000 deaths so far.
While the number is high, the vast majority of cases are being clustered in areas in the Northeast, including New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, Maryland, and Delaware.
As the New York Times reported earlier this week, the spike in cases has coincided with the beginning of the end to a federal lockdown in New York and elsewhere in the country.
Some areas are also experiencing unusually high rates of infections.
The New York metropolitan area has seen the highest number of new cases since the start of the pandemic, according the report, with 1,903 confirmed cases.
The number has now surpassed 2 million.
As of Tuesday morning, the state of New Jersey had 468 new cases, more than double the number it had on Tuesday night.
In Washington state, which is still battling the spread of the virus, there are more than 1,400 confirmed cases, and at the moment there are 572, according a state health department official.
There have also been more than 2,000 reported deaths in Washington state.
The new data is just the latest data released from the CDC to highlight the increase in COVID cases in New England.
The agency recently released a report that showed the number and frequency of infections had increased in many states, but that overall, cases are not increasing as fast as they were during the previous peak.
More recently, the CDC also released new data showing that New York is the most polluted state in the nation, with a whopping 95% of its homes and businesses considered to be in a state of high or very high exposure to COVID.
As more states struggle to contain the spread, the US has been hit with a number of other outbreaks.
The United Kingdom also announced that its air quality had been affected by the coronavirus outbreak, and as of Thursday, its Health and Safety Executive Office had declared a state-wide state of emergency for several areas in England.
[Image credit: AFP]Read next: Here’s how to help children who’ve been diagnosed with COVID in the past