Covid-19

COVID-19 cases surge in Washington state due to late reporting

Washington State's Department of Health began adding thousands of backlogged cases in late May, which means that the number of new cases reported in the latest release, which this story was based upon, did not necessarily occur in the week prior. The data that includes older cases will make week-to-week comparisons inaccurate.

New coronavirus cases leaped in Washington in the week ending Sunday, May 30, rising 73% as 8,355 cases were reported. The previous week had 4,829 new cases of the virus that causes COVID-19.

Washington ranked first among the states where coronavirus was spreading the fastest on a per-person basis, a USA TODAY Network analysis of Johns Hopkins University data shows. In the latest week coronavirus cases in the United States decreased 20.4% from the week before, with 140,886 cases reported. With 2.29% of the country's population, Washington had 5.93% of the country's cases in the last week. Across the country, five states had more cases in the latest week than they did in the week before.