They are also testing everyone that needs to be admitted to a hospital for any reason as well. I know because I have a family member getting surgery today and she had to be tested so they could put her in the non covid part of the hospital.
If the testing is constant yes you would see the % increase. My only point was that the testing wasn’t constant, we got 6,600 results back which presumably means we tested a lot more people somewhat recently. The % of positives was still over 25%.
Hmmm, not sure about that. NYC and NJ saw their % positives drop considerably over time. I would think that the more our mitigation efforts work the lower it would go.
I’m not really assuming anything. If the % positive dropped as the # of tests went up it would appear to be less widespread. If it remains constant it’s more widespread.
I think everyone gets the lag, but the idea still stands that the more tests you give, if the outbreak wasn’t very widespread, you’d see the % positive come down.
Yes, but as you test more and more people if you keep finding the same % positive that’s not good. If the outbreak is slowing as you test more people the % positive should decrease.
Maryland got over 6,600 test results yesterday and still a 26% positive rate, 1730 new cases. Not good. Need that positive rate to come way down to think the outbreak is slowing.
Basically what you said. Nothing has changed since the beginning. The goal was always to reduce deaths and serious illnesses and prevent the healthcare system from being overtaxed.
Its going to be very hard to ever fully control this thing given the level of transmission occurring under near lockdown. We are gonna really have to dial in the test, trace, isolate strategy, and quick.
DC recorded 19 deaths today which I believe is its highest single day total and also reporting less ICU beds available. It seems like IHME model was way out to lunch on saying DC had already peaked back in early April.
It almost certainly was IMO. A woman who traveled from DC to Italy in early February came back with classic symptoms had a positive antibody test. Given the amount of international travel that occurs to/from our region it was probably spreading here by early to mid February if not earlier.