The progression by 10k since hitting 50k on 4/24 slowed down until 6/22 at which point it had taken 15 days to get to 120k from 110k instead of the five, six and seven days for 10k jumps at the beginning.
Since 6/22, however, the pace has quickened again, taking 14, then 12, and now 11 days to add 10k deaths to bring us as of today to 150k.
This is due in large measure to "backfilling" of death totals by various states since 6/22, combined with big death increases in CA, AZ, TX and FL.
See the following, which represent not quite 4k deaths since 6/22, many of which are backfills, previous deaths from who knows when which required investigation or were in abeyance for one reason or another.
There have also been policy changes, as in Texas, where death certificates attributing deaths to COVID-19 are now added to the total despite not having laboratory proof. Completed death investigations of coronavirus deaths languish well below 1,000 in Texas where there have been over 6,500 COVID deaths according to the NYT data. Texas is clearly responsible for closing the latest gap to 11 days with its recent data dump.
As I've indicated elsewhere, the sum of the average daily deaths since the beginning in the 15 worst states has been falling for a month. These recent death data dumps and the death increases in the south are producing a bottoming effect this week. We'll see on Sunday where we are.
