two weeks after independence day

As a reminder, at June's end, the data for the states that I track was all on the rise, as it had been in May and April.
No declines for any, no periods of no new cases of COVID-19 infection.
In other words, this country should still be mired in Phase 1, however every business is open and cash registers are ringing and major league baseball is soon to begin.
Seriously.

Just as a refresher, here are the players for my little tableaus.
I'll start with those in the first graph.
That's Georgia in dark blue, with the squares.
California wears bright yellow and Florida is in sunny orange.
Texas is a dark purple.
Michigan wears the hunter green triangles.
Moving to those in the next graph, Georgia is again in the pack.
Pennsylvania is pale blue and sports little diamonds.
Louisiana resembles black barbed wire.
Tennessee is an indigo blue with circles.
Alabama is spring green, mirroring the data for Georgia.
Oklahoma is that dark yellow-orange at the bottom, post-political rally.

All of this data covers the period from Friday, July 3rd, through Monday, July 20th.
That spans the time from the first day of the USA's Independence Day weekend to the fourteenth day after that special, summer holiday, weekend came to a close.
I'm concentrating on the trends shown for the data at the start of this timeline and the data where it now is, two weeks later.

This graph has the seven-day totals of new COVID cases versus the two-week time span.
California and Texas are bounding over each other in their race from 50,000 upward, upward to 65,000.
Georgia had a brief hiccup downward, but sprang back up and kept climbing.
Michigan has still managed to stay under 10,000 new cases per week, but has inched upward.
But it's Florida, up at the top, which is trying to get a handle on things, especially after that meteoric rise from 60,000 to more than 80,000 cases per week. Currently, it looks to have a second dip in progress, but the theme parks are still open, so all bets are off.

How about those 7-day totals for the other five states?
Georgia is the mack daddy here, having climbed from 18,000 weekly to 27,000 per week.
Louisiana was doing as Georgia did, but instead of continuing a climb, it's fallen back, now at 13,000.
Alabama and Tennessee both began with their bayou cousin at about 10,000, and were holding fairly steady, but then took off as the 4th of July fireworks two weeks earlier had done, thanks to an unhealthy push from COVID parties.
Pennsylvania, though, keeps on truckin', showing what steady is all about, mirroring the actions of their Midwest neighbor, Michigan.
And in Oklahoma, things are not okay and they've surpassed 5,000 cases per week.
Definitely not okay.

So, what's happening with the per capita numbers?
Not much that's good, that's for sure.
Looking at rates of infected people per 100,000 population, Michigan is the only state to consider for a summer vacation.
Their rate rose from 700 per 100,000 to 800 per 100,000.
Florida's rate, on the other hand doubled, ending up at 1600 per 100,000.
Georgia had the next worse climb, from about 900 per 100,000 to 1400 per 100,000.
Texas' rate had a near doubling to about 1100 per 100,000, while California's rate increase was comparable to Georgia's percentage and ended up at about 1000 per 100,000.
That's only looking at the folks who have the disease, not those that have died.
The death toll in Texas has become so unmanageable that they had to call in refrigerated trucks to hold all their dead.

The data for the other five states is represented here, again with Georgia's for comparison.
Pennsylvania's data almost looks like a straight line, compared to the steep rises for the others.
And, as bad as Georgia's rise is, Louisiana's is just as bad, though starting from a higher place.
Tennessee's rise also tracks that of Georgia, though from a lower starting value.
Oklahoma's climbing rate is more moderate than that of Georgia and the others, but it's trying to catch up.
And what has happened to the data for Alabama?
Where's that bright green line?
Look closely... it's peeking out from under the dark blue of Georgia, where it has been mirroring its every move.
Not that it should be doing so.
The ones to mimic are Michigan and Pennsylvania.
By the way, those would be the states for a road trip.
Just make sure to bring a face covering and a congregation of alligators...
for social distancing, of course.
I don't leave home without mine.
Seriously.
Y'all stay safe.