Months into the pandemic and ahead of what experts say could be a difficult winter season, the US remains behind when it comes to Covid-19 testing, Dr. Anthony Fauci says.
“We’re better off now than we were a couple of months ago, that’s for sure,” Fauci told CNN’s Chris Cuomo Monday night. But the country is still not where it needs to be, he said.
Testing is crucial — but the US is behind: In the battle against the virus, experts have continually stressed how testing is critical. When done right, it can help health officials identify infections quickly and place those individuals in isolation before more people become infected. It can also give local leaders an idea of the level of infection within a community.
“We need to flood the system with testing,” Fauci said.
The US has conducted more than 107 million tests since the pandemic began. More than 210,000 Americans have died and there have been more than 7.4 million recorded infections — but the number of true infections is likely far greater than that, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said. And that’s likely because of the lack of testing in the first months of the pandemic, experts say.
Several states hit record-highs: Overall cases in the US are on the rise. The country reported more than 50,000 daily cases on Friday and Saturday. The last time the US saw more than 50,000 cases back to back was mid-August.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, at least 22 states are reporting more new cases than the previous week, with many across the Midwest and now increasingly in the Northeast.
Only four states are reporting a decline — Hawaii, Kansas, Missouri and South Carolina. The rest are holding steady, and several states have also reported record-highs in recent days.
Alaska, Indiana, Kentucky and Montana reported their highest 7-day averages for new daily cases over the weekend, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
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