US coronavirus: Highest number of deaths in a day recorded after several days of a downward trend

[Ms. Toad]

4. This is a bit misleading

First - the death toll has not "fallen or was nearly flat"

The number of deaths is not growing as quickly as it had been, but it is still growing exponentially. Here is the daily multiplier - unless it is 1.00 or less, it is growing every day.

4/7 - 1.181216079
4/8 - 1.151623705
4/9 - 1.128685421
4/10 - 1.123180157
4/11 - 1.097615618
4/12 - 1.074257666
4/13 - 1.069441303
4/14 - 1.101818951

So - you can see that there have been more deaths each and every day for the last week (growth factor over 1.00)

Yesterday's increase in new deaths was higher yesterday (1.10 v. 1.07 the prior day).

On Friday, the CDC changed reporting requirements. Deaths attributable to COVID 19 now include individual who tested positive on any test (not just the original test), and individuals who have known exposure, symptoms, and no other explanation. States are going back and reclassifying earlier deaths. Those show up in teh 26033 deaths for 4/14, even though they actually occurred several days earlier. That means the earlier growth factor is artificially low (by today's definition of death from COVID) and artificially high for yesterday (when New York reclassified a sizeable number of deaths).

So the numbers are leveling - the reporting blip from yesterday as to deaths is similar to the 2/12 - 2/13 spike in new cases in China.