Yesterday was a NINE Green Arrow Day.

Weekly Summary for Week Ended July 26, 2020
Tests and Fatalities

Yesterday was a NINE Green Arrow Day. Below are the particulars for the day. 

In the past couple of weeks, we have focused our weekly summary on the number of tests performed and fatalities. It looks like the number of tests has leveled off to somewhere between 5.8 to 5.9 million per week compared to 1.7 million for the week ending May 3, 2020, a 240% increase. 

Increasing the number of tests has several ramifications, such as the rates of new cases, fatalities, and other statistics because there is a much larger denominator. Also, an important factor that goes unpublished is that in the early days’ tests were rationed because the US did not have the capacity nor capability to perform as many tests as we do today. Many would-be COVID patients were told to stay home, self-quarantine, and let their doctor know if symptoms become more severe. 

What we will never know is how many cases we might have had, if we performed 4 million more tests during that week of May 3, 2020. One could speculate that had the test been available, perhaps the new cases could have been a bit higher than they are today. The CDC reported that via a random sampling of blood donations, there could have been as many as ten times more cases than the historical count. 

What we can count are fatalities, albeit there may be bias because the virus gets the blame for any death in which the patient died and tested positive, even if the likelihood of a longer life would be remote. The chart below shows that fatalities have dropped both in a relative and absolute sense. We believe that the lower numbers reflect our country’s ability to protect better those with multiple underlying conditions and to our healthcare professionals who have been able to improve patient outcomes.

Test Rates

Tests performed have increased to a 5.8 million/week level. The increase capacity and capability is helping drive this statistic.