Midwest Plateaus While Sunbelt and Coastal States Surge

The HealthWeather Briefing aggregates insights from Kinsa's network of smart thermometers and shares where we expect to see changes in COVID case counts and trajectories. Get your insights at a glance.

• South Carolina and Mississippi are at the top of our watchlist for rapid case growth.

• 46 states are still at critical or high COVID risk.

• Travis County, Texas and Mecklenburg County, North Carolina are the two high-population counties outside of California where we expect the largest increases of cases.

• Many Northern midwest states have begun to plateau: massive growth prior to Thanksgiving appears to have peaked, and some are even seeing declines in cases.

• Recent policy shifts are showing early signs of working in certain counties in New York and California. Despite this, other coastal and southern states are seeing exponential case growth and are expected to continue on this path.

• Last week’s predictions were correct in 4 places: increases in Nevada, Delaware and Georgia, and a decrease in Michigan. In Missouri, we were incorrect and the cases there have been increasing, possibly due to holiday travel.