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Other countries — even some hit hard by the coronavirus — are beating back their outbreaks more successfully than the U.S., Axios’ Dave Lawler and I report.

Why it matters: The number of new cases every day is holding steady in the U.S., but it’s not going down — a key benchmark many other countries achieved before loosening their lockdowns and social distancing measures.

In some of Europe’s hardest-hit countries, case counts seemed to skyrocket uncontrollably even amid some of the world’s strictest lockdowns.

• Italy and Spain followed a similar pattern. New cases climbed over about a month from under 100 per day to terrifying peaks of roughly 8,000 per day in Spain and 6,000 per day in Italy.
• The fall was nearly as sharp. Within two weeks of the peak, the rates of daily recorded cases had been halved. They’ve continued to fall since.

America’s daily rate climbed faster and higher (due in part to its larger population), but appears to have peaked at around 30,000 new cases per day in the first week of April.

• But rather than falling, the rate stagnated. Outside of New York (which has bent its curve) the rate is actually continuing to climb.

Between the lines: The U.S. didn’t lock down as tightly as some of those countries, and made a host of mistakes early in the response.

• Italy and Spain issued strict nationwide lockdowns that forced most people to remain inside except to shop for necessities. Spain didn’t allow children outside at all.
• “Our economic shutdown … wasn’t as broad as some of the other countries’, so there was more opportunity for the virus to spread,” said Amesh Adalja, a senior scholar at the John Hopkins Center for Health Security.

The big picture: “It seems that this is a controllable pandemic without it having to run its natural course,” says Columbia University economist Jeffrey Sachs.