Is the U.S. 'Flattening the Curve?' Check Our Coronavirus Chart for Daily Updates

S E E D E D   C O N T E N T

very day, the number of Americans confirmed as infected by the virus that causes COVID-19 is higher than the day before. Such is the brutality of exponential growth: Not only does the raw number of COVID-19 cases grow, the rate at which it grows increases as well.

The following charts show how six nations, including the U.S., have either managed to stem the tide of the novel coronavirus, or are poised for an explosive growth in cases. TIME will update these charts daily.

Short of a miracle cure, the only way to halt this pandemic in a given region, experts say, is to starve it. And nations around the world are attempting to do just that, by essentially cutting off life support to SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19. That means enforcing social distancing and shelter-in-place policies designed to limit the virus’s access to us — the human bodies that host and enable the microorganism to spread.

If a community enacts these protective measures early enough in the process, it can avoid a local outbreak that rapidly spins out of control and turns into a crisis. The goal is to avoid a sharp, concentrated uptick in cases that exceeds the capacity of the health care system, in favor of a lengthier outbreak that stays within the bounds of what the system can handle—resulting in fewer people getting sick and dying overall. This is what experts call “flattening the curve.”

Experts are currently upholding South Korea as a model for how to flatten the curve; along with China, it is one of only two countries with large outbreaks that have managed to do so. But South Korea stands apart, because it appears to have accomplished this feat without resorting to the   draconian measures   that China used to stem the tide of the outbreak in its provinces.

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