The US has tested shockingly few people for the new coronavirus

Only 1,895 people have been tested for the novel coronavirus in the US, according to reporting by The Atlantic. That’s a shockingly low number: the UK has tested over 18,000 people, and South Korea is testing around 10,000 people a day.

There are over 200 people in the US with confirmed cases of COVID-19, the disease caused by the virus. But the number of people actually infected with the disease around the country is likely much higher. Researchers predict that there are hundreds of people in Washington state alone who have been infected in the past few weeks — the low number of cases is more a reflection of how little testing has been done than of the actual burden of disease.

Continue reading…