The United States is closing in on the sombre milestone of 200,000 deaths from Covid-19 as more than half of states are reporting a rise in cases.
The climb comes after many states had seen case numbers decline following a summer resurgence of infections.
Among the states reporting more new cases in the last seven days are Wisconsin, Idaho, South Dakota, Iowa and Kansas, all of which are also reporting test positivity rates above 15%.
The test positivity rate is the percentage of all tests given that come back positive for coronavirus.
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The World Health Organization (WHO) advised governments in May that positivity rates should hold steady at 5% or lower for at least two weeks before businesses reopen. A total of 27 states and Puerto Rico have rates above that level, according to JHU.
But some states are still seeing improvements. Maine, Vermont, Massachusetts and New York all have positivity rates below 1%, and Delaware, Hawaii, Louisiana, Michigan, South Carolina and Vermont are all reporting fewer cases than last week.
More than 6.7 million people have been infected with the virus in the US and 199,511 have died, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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News source: CNN
