The Johns Hopkins University COVID website, commonly known as “the map”, now reports that California has more confirmed COVID-19 cases than any other US state, commonwealth or territory. Per JHU, at 6:00 AM Pacific California has 409,382 confirmed cases while New York State has 408,181. Both are substantially ahead of Florida at 369,834 and Texas at 353,091. New Jersey was in second place for a very long time, but with 177,256 confirmed cases is now in fifth, although for now well ahead of, in order, Illinois, Georgia, Arizona, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania and North Carolina, all of which have over 100,000 confirmed cases.
Both California and New York State have fewer confirmed cases than the four worst stricken COUNTRIES world-wide: The United States, Brazil, India and Russia. Likewise, both California and New York State have more confirmed cases than the fifth most stricken country, the Republic of South Africa at 381,798. As Russia has reported 787,846 confirmed cases it seems unlikely that California will be moving up. However, South Africa, Peru, Mexico and Chile have been leaping upward lately.
The less disappointing news is that California deaths using current counting methods are still under 8,000 [probably 7,890 – apparently some possible adjustments are ongoing]. With 32,520 deaths New York State has a huge lead, trailed at some distance by New Jersey with 15,737. Massachusetts remains in third place with 8,450, while Illinois is in fifth place with 7,517 followed by Pennsylvania with 7,051.