Published 10:16 IST, October 25th 2020
Trump's claim of higher Covid-19 testing doesn't explain rise in cases in the US: Study
Coronavirus pandemic is worsening in the US as the number of new daily cases, hospitalizations, positivity rates, and deaths are trending upwards, reports
The novel coronavirus pandemic is worsening in the United States as the number of new daily cases, hospitalizations, the positivity rate, and deaths are trending upwards, according to experts. In recent months, the country has increased testing however, but according to the experts, the total does not reflect a successful testing effort. This comes after the US set a new record for COVID-19 cases in a single day on Friday with an alarming new surge of infections.
Trump claims cases up because of testing
President Donald Trump on Saturday asserted that cases are up because testing is way up, 'by far the most, and best, in the world'. According to the experts in the country, Trump’s claim was misleading as a report by the New York Times stated that the COVID-19 cases are not driven by adequate testing but they are identified by it. The data explains that the pandemic is worsening in the US.
According to the Covid Tracking Project, the United States has performed more than 128 million tests since the pandemic began, but the total does not reflect a successful testing effort. Furthermore, when testing increases, more cases of the virus will be caught and it will also identify individuals who are not infected, New York Times claimed in its report while adding that an essential metric for public health experts to monitor the virus’s spread, limit budding outbreaks and empower healthy people to safely interact.
Pandemic worsening in the US
As more tests are being done now than earlier in the summer, the percentage of tests that are coming back positive is now increasing, according to another daily in the US. This indicates that the outbreak is worsening as not only cases are up, but hospitalizations and deaths are also rising according to COVID Tracking Project’s weekly update from October 22. Extensive testing will identify more cases, but only if those infections exist, the report claimed.
The United States has so far recorded 8,827,932 confirmed cases of Coronavirus with 230,068 deaths according to the latest data released by Worldometer. A total of 5,741,611 patients have recovered from lethal infection. Texas and California have the highest caseload with 909,749 and 904,755 cases respectively with death rates rising to 18,026 and 17,345 in the two states.
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Updated 10:16 IST, October 25th 2020