This week, the United States surpassed 5 million cumulative cases of COVID-19. In light of this grim milestone, I4DI decided to take a closer look at the oft-cited, oft-misunderstood testing statistics to find out where the United States stands as compared with the rest of the world. Although at first glance it might look like we are ahead, once we compared our state-level positivity rate (the percentage of tests that come back positive) to recommended standards, we see that we are coming up short in 13 states. Rwanda, one of the countries with the lowest positivity rates, has much to teach us when it comes to controlling a pandemic.
As the pandemic draws on and the numbers grow, many people are feeling fatigue from COVID-19 statistics. Often, the magnitude or severity of the case count in a particular region is difficult to grasp without proper context. In looking to make these overwhelming numbers more digestible, I4DI has launched a series of weekly posts which aim to bring updated, real-time data and trends to the public in a way that is easy to understand.
