The USA will as early as end of today surpass 100,000 of confirmed Covid-19 cases. How did the US ended up with such a mess and in such a short time? I am sure many articles will be written on how the Public Health system adequately or inadequately stepped up to the crisis. What is clear to me is that the "system" dropped the ball by failure to ramp up on the availability of testing kits and wasted probably two weeks of crucial mobilization window.
We know that extensive testing is vitally important in identifying carriers within the population so as to quickly isolate them from the rest of the population. This was clearly the case with the South Korean experience and its success in containing the spread. A write up on the story can be found here.
In contrast, the US was very slow in this effort compared to a number of countries. The following chart highlights the lack of effort during the comparable time period in terms of testing per 100,000 popultion.
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The good news is that in recent days the testing regime has significantly scaled up and the main reason why the number of confirmed cases have also increased significantly.
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Put in perspective, the scale of US testing as early as a week ago was way behind when bench-marked against some other countries.
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There is a write up explaining why the US was so slow in ramping up testing
Unfortunately, the genie is now out of the bottle and will require a lot more effort to address the crisis. New York is now the epicenter for the US just as Wuhan was to China. It is the place to watch to understand how well or badly the US "system' is coping with the crisis. New York currently is averaging 30 % positive results which suggest that the scale of testing is still insufficient in identifying the cases that need to be isolated to prevent community infection. In contrast, South Korea's testing regime resulted in a 3 % strike rate which means the scope of testing was more extensive.
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Covid-19 is now present in almost every country and is a world wide problem no matter where you live. We can all play a part by observing and practicing social distancing because one less infection means one less strain on the health system. The following is a study on the effectiveness of social distancing only if each of us play a part in the effort.
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Stay safe.