More Coronavirus Testing is Occurring, But More is Needed

Testing for coronavirus. It has proven one of the key ways to know where the disease is hitting us hardest. 

New data has given us a better idea of how well our state has been doing when it comes to this. 

NBC Connecticut received U.S. and state data compiled on coronavirus testing through March 31, from CovidTracking.com and U.S. Census Bureau 2019 statistics.

In Connecticut, as of March 31:

• 16,157 people have been tested
• 13,029 tested negative
• 3128 tested positive

So, how did Connecticut rank on how much coronavirus testing has done?   Right now our state is testing  45 people out of every 10,000.   That may sound low, but Connecticut actually ranked 14^th out of 50 states on a per capita basis.

For comparison, New York state ranks first, testing 105 people for every 10,000. California, another hotspot, is 50^th testing just seven people per 10,000.

Hartford Healthcare

That said, there has been almost universal support in the medical profession that the U.S. needs to do more testing.  

“Some of the challenges we have had, at least in my opinion, it’s my opinion, in the United States, that we have not been able to predict very well, where the peak and the sustainment of the peak will happen.  Only because we don’t have widespread capability of testing," Dr. Ajay Kumar of Hartford Healthcare said.

And what has been causing this lack of coronavirus testing?  Our sister network CNBC reported:

•   Shortages of supplies to run tests, and protective equipment
• A testing backlog generated before capacity increased
• A logistics slowdown with suppliers dealing with fewer flights around the country
• More recently approved coronavirus tests not being used

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