The United States has ratcheted up its coronavirus testing capacity in recent weeks. But a new Insider poll finds that it still isn’t enough: The…
The United States has ratcheted up its coronavirus testing capacity in recent weeks. But a new Insider poll finds that it still isn’t enough: The number of people who believe they may have had the virus well outpaces the number of people who were tested.
Of 1,099 people polled, 13% said they «definitely» or «probably» had COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus. But only 9% of those people were tested.
An additional 20% of respondents said they «maybe» contracted the virus. Including those people, the poll found that a total of just 5% of respondents who suspected they had the virus have been tested.
In other words, 33% of people believe they may have been sickened by coronavirus — but just 5% of those people got tests.
The poll’s margin of error was 3%. Conducted April 28 through April 29, it asked: «Do you think you have had coronavirus?» It offered choices for «definitely yes,» «probably yes,» «maybe,» «probably no,» and «definitely no.» Respondents who answered «definitely yes,» «probably yes,» or «maybe» were asked whether they were tested.
By Thursday morning, the United States had tested just over six million people for COVID-19, according to Johns Hopkins University data, or less than 2% of the US population.
Claudio Furlan/LaPresse via AP
On April 22, President Donald Trump signed the latest pandemic relief bill, which will shore up testing capacities with an additional $25 billion.
