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.
