US has tested 9 million for coronavirus. China plans to test 11 million in 10 days
Each of Wuhan, China’s 11 million residents will be tested for coronavirus following a recent cluster of cases, according to media reports.
The 11 million is larger than the total number of tests administered in the United States since the pandemic began. There have been 9 million COVID-19 tests done in the U.S., according to Brett Giroir, Assistant Secretary for Health in President Donald Trump’s administration.
Trump said Monday the U.S. will pass 10 million administered tests this week, according to USA Today. In April, he said the country will be able to administer five million tests per day “very soon,” according to CNBC.
The “Roadmap for Pandemic Resilience” released by Harvard last month says the U.S. needs to “deliver five million tests per day by early June to deliver a safe social reopening” and “20 million a day to fully remobilize the economy.”
Harvard’s Global Health Institute suggested last week the U.S. should be testing more than 900,000 people per day, NPR reported. There are currently between 200,000 and 300,000 tests done per day in the country, the COVID Tracking Project determined.
Giroir, who is overseeing coronavirus testing, said on March 21 that 27 million COVID-19 tests would be available by the end of March, but the U.S. had just 1 million by March 31, Newsweek reported.
He said Tuesday the country will conduct 12 million more tests over the next four weeks and will be able to do 40 to 50 million tests per month by September.
Trump touted Monday that “America leads the world in testing.” The Washington Post reported South Korea, Germany, China and Italy are among the countries that are testing more citizens per capita than the United States.
The 9 million tests administered represents 2.7% of the United States’ population.
Wuhan, where the coronavirus outbreak began, is planning to test all of its citizens over the next 10 days after six new cases emerged, CNN reported. “Older people and densely populated communities” will be given testing priority in Wuhan, according to The Guardian.