UPDATE: United States has now done approximately 1 million #coronavirus tests. This is a milestone that has been talked about since March 4th. But there's a stat we're far more interested in: TESTS PER CAPITA.
TPC gives a sense of the amount of testing relative to the population. For example, Italy (population 60 million) has done half as many total tests as the United States (population 330 million). But Italy has done 3 times as many tests per capita as the United States.
It could take months to catch up in this crucial metric. There are signs the U.S. may fall further behind: California has averaged just 2050 tests/day over the past week according to @COVID19Tracking. We really have no idea what's happening with #coronavirus in our largest state.
Gov. of Montana says his state is "one day away, if we don’t get test kits from the C.D.C., that we wouldn’t be able to do testing in Montana" according to leaked audio obtained by NYT. Yesterday, the Gov. of Washington made a similar plea for more tests.
We also know healthcare workers are often unable to obtain testing, even after they display symptoms. The same is true of many patients. Ramping up testing was the focus of March; it must remain the focus in April. But it should be discussed in terms of TESTS PER CAPITA.
