5 Million People in the U.S. Have Tested Positive for COVID-19 as Surges Continue Around the Country

More than 5 million people in the U.S.—about 1.5% of the country’s total population—have tested positive for COVID-19 as of Aug. 9, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. Over 162,000 people have died. The U.S. now accounts for roughly 25% of confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide. Its overall case count is millions higher that of the next-hardest-hit country: Brazil, which according to official records has about 3 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 as of Aug. 9. New U.S. cases are also accumulating faster than they did in the pandemic’s early months. The country recorded 1 million diagnoses on April 28. It then took about six weeks to hit 2 million cases, and another month to hit 3 million. From there, only about two weeks passed before the country hit the 4 millionth case mark—and now, another two weeks later, the tally is up to 5 million. Part of that uptick is due to better testing capacity. When the pandemic first hit the U.S., many people with relatively mild cases could not get tested, leaving gaping holes in the official data. The testing situation has improved somewhat, helping the data better reflect what’s actually going on across the country, but testing delays are still a significant issue. That means official case counts are still underestimates, albeit staggeringly high underestimates. Testing also can’t fully explain why so many states are seeing surges right now. If testing practices alone were behind the s...
Source: TIME: Health - Category: Consumer Health News Authors: Tags: Uncategorized COVID-19 Source Type: news