Ruobing Su/Business Insider
As of March 8, the US had conducted just 5 total tests per million people — or 0.005 per 1,000 people. By contrast, South Korea, which has been able to contain the spread of the virus within its borders much more effectively, had processed 3,700 tests per million people — or 3.7 per 1,000 people.
In the week leading up to that date, nearly 30% of tests in the US came back positive, according to The COVID Tracking Project, an indication that it was failing to test enough people to have a good sense of the virus' spread.
A month later, tests had ramped up considerably — more than 1.4 million as of April 4 compared to just 135,000 on March 20 — but experts said its efforts were still lagging behind.
Four and a half months after it recorded its first case, the US is finally testing at levels recommended by the WHO. From June 1 to June 8, it conducted 3.2 million tests, just shy of 10 per 1,000 people, and around 4.8% came back positive.
However, the US has yet to see its positivity rate dip below 5% for 2 consecutive weeks, and experts are increasingly warning of new waves of cases in states that open prematurely. Some, like Oregon, have already paused reopening plans amid rising cases.