Coronavirus: Is the pandemic getting worse in the US?

The news in the US has been dominated by anti-racism protests in recent weeks, but coronavirus is now back in the headlines.

Several states have seen a record number of cases this week, leading to fears that the country is experiencing a second wave of infections.

But Vice-President Mike Pence said those fears were "overblown" and accused the media of using "grim predictions" to scare the American people.

So what is going on in the US?

The number of infections is going up

With about 2.5 million coronavirus cases, the US has the highest number of confirmed infections in the world - about a quarter of the global total.

The situation got really bad in late March but by May, cases were declining and most states had begun to ease restrictions put into place to halt the spread of the virus.

The number of new cases rarely fell below 20,000 though, because as some states were bringing their outbreaks under control, others were only just beginning to see flare-ups.

For this reason, the top US health official for infectious diseases, Anthony Fauci, sees the current situation as a continuation of the initial outbreaks.

"People keep talking about a second wave," he told a reporter recently. "We're still in a first wave."

Spikes in those new hotspots mean the number of daily cases has been higher twice this week than previous record back in late April, according to data compiled by the COVID Tracking Project.

But it's important to note that the number of tests being carried out now is about double what it was in April and May so it's likely the true scale of that outbreak wasn't fully captured.

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There are big regional differences

The North East has been by far the worst-hit region, with about a quarter of all US cases and more than a third of all US deaths occurring in the states of New York and New Jersey. But in recent weeks, the region has brought its outbreaks under control.

The South and West of the country, on the other hand, have seen a big rise in the number of infections. The Midwest is also starting to see an increase.

There's no debate over whether cases are going up again, but there is over why.

President Donald Trump blames it on increased testing, telling the Wall Street Journal he thinks "testing is overrated" because "in many ways, it makes us look bad."

The US has conducted about 30 million tests so that does go some way to explaining why it has the highest number of cases in the world, although international comparisons are difficult to make for a number of reasons.

But there's plenty of evidence to suggest the recent rise in infections is down to more than just a higher number of people being tested.

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The rise in cases isn't just down to more testing

In recent days, Arizona, California, Florida and Texas have seen more new cases on their own than the entire nine-state North East region and that's not just down to increased testing.

This is clear when you look at the rate of coronavirus tests that are coming back positive.

If lots of tests are being done and the spread of the virus has been reduced, then the positive case rate would go down too. If the virus is still being spread widely, it goes up.