Milwaukee (AP) – The number of coronavirus tests leading up to the nation’s response to the epidemic is likely to be erratic next week or so, experts said Friday, with fewer people testing and observing test sites during the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. Short time.
The results report could have potential dips in the infection that give the illusion that the spread of the virus is getting easier, when in fact, the numbers say little about where the nation stands in the fight against Covid-19. According to Johns Hopkins University, the number of Americans who tested positive passed 13 million on Friday.
“I just hope people don’t misinterpret the numbers and that Thanksgiving doesn’t seem to result in a big boom, and then Christmas and Hanukkah and other travel plans end up being done,” said Professor Dr. Said Liana Wayne. George and Washington Washington University and Emergency Physician.
The same week occurs on several weekends. With some testing centers, laboratories and state offices closed on Saturdays and Sundays, covid case numbers go down several times every Sunday and Monday, only peaking on Tuesdays.
Professor of Omaha University of Nebraska Medical Center and Chair of Infectious Diseases Dr. Mark Rupp said the impact of Thanksgiving is likely to be an expanded version of the weekend’s final figures. Thursday’s holiday will exacerbate record-breaking discrepancies over the long weekend, artificially depressing numbers recorded for four to five days before spiking as test results are obtained.
A few days before Thanksgiving, Johns Hopkins University recorded more than 2 million tests, but on Thanksgiving Day that number dropped to less than 1.2 million. The latter number, as well as the positive case numbers, which had dropped almost to the third Friday, could be adjusted as more results came back.
In some states and cities, officials recorded sharp drops in the test on Friday and reminded people not to read the correction. Arkansas Govt. Asa Hutchinson said the drop means residents will not know for weeks how efforts to slow their spread have affected the state’s positive testing rate.
While testing continued on Thursday and Friday, health officials said they tested people before deciding to travel or gather for a Thanksgiving meal. They warned that tests are always snapshots, not absolute certainty that no one has been exposed to the virus.
“I think it could be a kind of misunderstanding of safety for some people,” Rupen said, adding that the holiday would be followed by another week, “as people continue to travel, they continue to gather outside their immediate family.” “
Experts worry about how people might interpret the situation after a long week, especially if it takes a few weeks to show the data exposed to testing testing.
Cities and states typically use hospitalization and intensive care numbers, which are behind reporting cases of the virus, to determine when to increase or simplify public health restrictions and recommendations. But the public is likely to pay attention to test numbers or case counts, which can be misleading, Wayne said, and it is dangerous to wait until hospitals are sunk.
“It simply came to our notice then. I think it’s very frustrating to see our calls being ignored for those in health care, “Wayne said.” And the level of alarm we have is not reflected in the behavior of individuals. “
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Associated Press authors Bay Shore, N.Y., and Claudia Lauer of Philadelphia contributed to this report.
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