The US President made the claim during a White House briefing on the virus, saying the country had now tested more people than anywhere else in the world – including on a per capita basis.
But while the US has overtaken South Korea in total numbers of coronavirus tests administered, other were quick to point out it has conducted far fewer tests per capita given the US population is over six times larger than South Korea’s.
As of Thursday afternoon, the US – which has a population of 329 million – had administered at least 1,267,658 according to the COVID Tracking Project, launched by The Atlantic magazine which has over 100 volunteers collecting coronavirus testing data from all of its states.
This is the equivalent of 385 tests per 100,000 people in the US – which vary widely depending on the state and city – compared to 709 per 100,000 in South Korea and 600 per 100,000 in Italy.
The Americans are also well behind Australia, which as of Friday morning had tested over 270,000 people – over 1% of the population.
Still, we have sympathy for Trump – given the US President has finally admitted the country is facing a “very, very painful two weeks”, we imagine he is finally aware of the challenge he faces.
