On a population adjusted basis, Tennessee still leads the world in the spread of COVID-19. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee held a virtual briefing Sunday night. He urged people to wear masks, but did not issue a mask mandate. His only hard order was limiting in-person social gatherings to 10 people or less. This is weak policy guidance, but some local governments and organizations are taking action, including shutting down in-person hearings in courts for 30 days and voluntarily limiting church gatherings (even though churches are exempt). Hopefully, this will have an impact soon – as of December 21, the weekly average for daily new cases of the virus is 136 per 100,000 people. This is higher than any other U.S. state as well as every other country. For a comparison of the top states along with other countries, see the table below.
Only Georgia (the country in Europe, not the U.S. state) and Lithuania are equal to or greater than any of the top 14 U.S. states for the current spread of COVID-19 per capita, as measured by the latest weekly average of daily new cases. As is evident from the table the recent surge in COVID-19 cases is affecting all regions of the country, although overall the recent surge in the Midwest has diminished since its peak in late November.
Note: I am using data from Johns Hopkins. Data tracked by the CDC is similar, but different. For example, the CDC lists Oklahoma as higher than Tennessee for the weekly average of new cases per 100k people, and Texas as third behind Tennessee. Click here to see their data.