The U.S. is close to matching its previous peak daily coronavirus count

The U.S. isn't seeing a second wave of coronavirus. It never even left the first.

While other countries have been able to reopen after pretty much beating COVID-19, the U.S. has started to get back to normal without even exiting its first coronavirus peak. This graph from Our World of Data, which compares U.S. case counts to countries in Europe, makes it clear that the U.S. isn't even in a COVID-19 plateau — it's starting to see case counts rise again.

And as Time's director of data journalism Chris Wilson notes, that new rise in cases could push America beyond its previous daily case count record. The U.S. hit its peak case count in late April with 36,379 COVID-19 cases reported, and while cases hit a bit of a trough in late May and early June, they're on a clear increase once again.

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More widespread testing can account for some of the increase, but states that had seen the harshest effects of coronavirus early on, namely New York and parts of the northeast are still in a steady downturn from their April peaks. Instead, states that had low initial case counts are fueling this recent rise, showing how COVID-19 is spreading into rural areas and western states that were quick to reopen after federal guidelines loosened up.