The Americas Account For 50% Of Top Countries Hardest Hit By Covid-19

The Americas Account For 50% Of Top Countries Hardest Hit By Covid-19

The pandemic started in a China city most of us never heard of “” Wuhan. It might as well have started in New York City. Since the outbreak there began in late February and led to lockdowns, the United States has become the global epicenter of the new SARS coronavirus. In fact, all of the Americas has been particularly hard hit. The two biggest countries in this hemisphere “” Brazil and the U.S. “” are the hardest hit with nearly 8 million cases between the two of them. That's more than all of Asia, including India and Russia.

Of the top 10 countries that have reported the greatest number of cases, five of them are in the Americas, based on Johns Hopkins University's Covid-19 map.

Important U.S. states are seeing a spike in the infection curve. Perhaps our over-reliance on case loads rather than hospitalizations makes it worse than it is. But for those in the government taking their cues from positive SARS-CoV-2 test results, even if the patient is not in need of hospitalization, then the spike in California, Texas and Florida is a headwind in every sense of the word “” bad for markets, bad for business, bad for schools,