Georgia, Texas and Florida lead the country in coronavirus cases per capita

Per capita, Georgia has reported the most cases per day over a 7-day average of any state, followed by Texas and Florida. All three states are led by governors who pushed to reopen during the spring, saw major summer surges of cases and are currently pushing to reopen schools.

Texas has issued a mandate requiring face masks, while Florida and Georgia have not. Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp has gone so far as to keep cities from making stricter rules and has sued the city of Atlanta for trying to require face masks. Georgia has also allowed restaurants, bars and gyms to open at limited capacity.

A White House Coronavirus Task Force report dated August 16 obtained by the Atlanta Journal Constitution (AJC) recommends that Georgia do more to fight coronavirus.

The report comes as colleges across the country are quickly learning it may be next to impossible to create a coronavirus-free environment on campus.

Across the US, the virus continues to spread at high rates. The 7-day average of daily new coronavirus cases in the US declined on Monday to 49,000, the first time it's been below 50,000 since July 6. Still, worldwide, that average daily total is surpassed only by India, which has four times the number of people.

The US's 7-day average of new deaths has been over 1,000 per day for the past 23 days. In Florida, officials reported deaths of more than 200 people in a day Tuesday -- for at least the 10th time in the past month. More than 5.5 million Americans have been infected since the start of the pandemic and at least 172,000 have died.

Georgia leads the pack in per capita cases

Though conditions in some areas of Georgia have improved modestly in recent weeks, the task force said Georgia remains in the red zone for severity of the outbreak as measured by rate of case growth and test positivity, the AJC reported.

"Georgia's small gains are fragile and statewide progress will require continued, expanded, and stronger mitigation efforts, including in all open schools," according to the White House report obtained by the AJC.

The AJC reported that the White House Coronavirus Task Force continues to recommend that Georgia close bars and gyms, restrict indoor dining at restaurants to one-quarter capacity in the highest risk counties, and limit social gatherings to 10 or fewer people, even within families.

In a statement to CNN, Kemp's office said the governor and Georgia Department of Health "Urge Georgians to wear a mask, watch their distance, wash their hands, and follow public health guidelines."

"Georgia continues to make strong progress in the fight against COVID-19," according to the statement emailed to CNN by Gov. Kemp's press secretary Cody Hall. "Our 7-day average of new cases is down 26%, our hospitalizations are down 19%, and the 7-day average of positive tests is down to 9.4%. Georgia's transmission rate is 0.85 and testing capacity remains high but underutilized. This data is encouraging, but we cannot take our foot off the gas."

Universities rethinking amid outbreaks

Young people helped drive a nationwide surge of new coronavirus cases over the summer and are now returning to college campuses across the country, seeding new outbreaks. Outbreaks have been traced to off-campus gatherings, sororities, fraternities and dorms, leaving schools to reassess how to proceed with the fall semester.

"It's just extremely difficult to consider yourself to be in a bubble when there is a very high level of community spread around you or when people are coming from all over the country and congregating on college campuses," said Dr. Leana Wen, the former Baltimore City Health Commissioner. "You can't keep coronavirus out."

About a dozen colleges have already reported cases of coronavirus on campus, and others are taking a more careful approach to reopening.

All undergraduate classes at the University of Notre Dame will be remote for the next two weeks after 147 students tested positive for coronavirus, the president announced this week.

At Appalachian State University, in North Carolina, a cluster was associated with the football team. Iowa State University said 175 students tested positive for the virus -- about 2.2% of those tested -- during move-in.

UNC-Chapel Hill reported that 130 students had tested positive for coronavirus in the first week since classes began. The university is moving to remote learning for undergraduates starting Wednesday, school officials said in a letter about a week after classes started. The school said it still plans to play sports this fall, despite no longer holding in-person classes.

University of Kentucky said 160 people have tested positive since school began on August 3. A significant number of parties, which violated the school's student code, has led to the rise in cases, according to the university's director of executive communication, Sarah Geegan.

At Colorado College, all 155 students in one dorm have been forced to quarantine after the college learned of a student who tested positive and did not practice proper social distancing guidelines.

At Drake University, 14 students were asked to leave the campus for two weeks after violating an agreement signed by students that outlined health and safety protocols for the year.

North Carolina State University, Oklahoma State University, Northeast Mississippi Community College, Western Kentucky University and East Carolina University have all reported significant numbers of cases as well.

While older Americans and those with underlying conditions are at greater risk of severe illness, health officials have emphasized it's not only those populations that should be cautious.

Coronavirus cases in children steadily increased from March to July, experts said earlier this month, and one in three children who were hospitalized were admitted to intensive care -- the same as adults.

And younger people who may recover from the virus with minimal symptoms and in many cases don't require hospitalization, still can have "residual symptoms for weeks and sometimes month," said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

"We'd better be careful when we say 'Young people who don't wind up in the hospital are fine, let them get infected, it's OK.' No, it's not OK," Fauci said during an American Society for Microbiology briefing on Monday.