The death toll from covid-19 began to rise steadily in early March, then more sharply as the disease spread to every state and most U.S. territories.

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The disease caused by the novel coronavirus has killed at least   people in the United States. The countrys earliest covid-19 fatality was thought to be a 58-year-old man near Seattle, whose death was announced Feb. 29.
But on April 22, officials in California announced that tissue from two people who had died in early and mid-February in Santa Clara County had tested positive, signaling that the virus may have spread in the country weeks earlier than was previously thought.
As the death toll rose through March and April and U.S. testing lagged, criteria for reporting deaths changed in some states and cities. Even now, jurisdictions continue to fine-tune their counting and reporting procedures, so numbers in this piece may fluctuate as local authorities classify and reclassify cases.
New York City, for instance, in mid-April added to its total more than 3,700 deaths of people who were presumed to have covid-19 but were never tested.
By April 13, the virus had killed in every state.
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Because testing was slow to begin in the United States, health officials agree that the number of reported cases is much lower than the actual number of people who have the disease, and even the count of deaths is probably low because of differences in reporting by overwhelmed local jurisdictions.
Hot spots have erupted in a few places with large outbreaks, none more dire than in New York, where at least   cases have been reported and at least   have died since March 14, when Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo (D) announced the death of an 82-year-old woman.
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Although it is a populous state, New York also leads the country in deaths per 100,000 residents. Neighboring states are not far behind.
Hard-hit Louisiana suffered an early breakout in New Orleans, which may have been fueled by the month-long Carnival celebration that drew more than a million people to the city in February and culminated in a raucous and crowded Mardi Gras.
Adjusted for populationRaw numbers
Deaths reported per 100,000 residents
Adjusted for populationRaw numbers

But those are far from the only areas struggling to contain the disease and treat its victims.
Washington, where the U.S. outbreak was first announced in early February, has had a high number of deaths among older people, particularly in the Seattle area. The disease took root early in several King County nursing homes and facilities that care for older, sicker people.
[Tracking known coronavirus cases in D.C., Maryland and Virginia]
Most deaths worldwide have occurred among people older than 50 and those with underlying health problems, as they are often most vulnerable to respiratory disease.
Wayne County, Mich., which includes Detroit, has a high rate of infections per capita thanks in part, health officials told the Detroit Free Press, to economic disparities. People in areas of concentrated poverty tend to have higher rates of diabetes, heart disease and obesity.
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The virus is not just an urban issue. Sparsely populated rural areas dont have the huge raw numbers of cases or deaths that cities are reporting, but some rank highly in deaths and cases per capita. People in very rural areas are more likely to die of flu than urbanites and may be more vulnerable to covid-19 as well, according to a Post analysis of CDC data.
Adjusted for populationRaw numbers

A handful of counties in southwestern Georgia have some of the highest rates of infection and deaths in the country. The governor sent Georgia National Guard troops to help with medical care in Dougherty County, which has fewer than 100,000 people but more than 1,000 cases and dozens of deaths.
However, not all numbers are terrible. California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) was the first to issue a statewide stay-at-home order on March 19 in an attempt to contain the spread of the disease that had already infiltrated the San Francisco Bay area and greater Los Angeles. Most governors eventually issued similar orders, and preliminary data show that the early social-distancing orders are working.
Adjusted for populationRaw numbers
Tests reported per 100,000 residents

On April 16, as the virus appeared to be waning in some places and just arriving in others, the Trump administration released a framework for reopening the country.
According to the presidents guidelines, accurate and thorough test results are necessary so officials can make informed decisions about easing stay-at-home restrictions.
Because there is no coordinated national testing system, and testing criteria and frequency vary widely among states and even among localities within states. Widespread implementation of testing has also experienced significant delays. As a result, some states and areas test much higher percentages of their populations than others, according to the Covid Tracking Project.
About this story
Data on deaths and cases comes from Post reporting and Johns Hopkins University. Post-reported data is gathered from state sites and from county and city sites for certain jurisdictions. Deaths are recorded on the dates they are announced, not necessarily the dates they occur. All numbers are provisional and may be revised by the jurisdictions.
On April 14, New York City authorities began including probable covid-19 deaths, which added more than 3,700 previous deaths to the city’s total.
Population data are five-year estimates from the 2018 American Community Survey by the U.S. Census Bureau.
State stay-at-home order data from Post reporting. State-of-emergency declarations were tallied by Boston University’s covid-19 U.S. state policy database.
Testing data is from the Covid-19 Tracking Project.
Bonnie Berkowitz, Jacqueline Dupree, Armand Emamdjomeh, Simon Glenn-Gregg, Erik Reyna and Susan Tyler contributed to this report.
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