- Experts agree that widespread testing is a crucial part of staying on top of the
coronavirus enough to safely re-open society. - But an analysis by the Associated Press (AP) showed that just 10 states are at a high enough level.
- The AP measured states on two criteria: one floated (though not formalized) by the White House, and a second set out by experts at Harvard.
- Nineteen states don't meet either the federal or Harvard standards. Nonetheless, they are all starting to loosen restrictions in some capacity.
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More than half of states in the US will start reopening by the end of the week. But the vast majority of the country is not meeting even relatively basic standards when it comes to testing for the coronavirus.
The Associated Press published an analysis over the weekend which showed just 10 states are conducting the amount of testing experts say is needed to stay on top of the pandemic.
High levels of testing are necessary to spot pockets of infections and contain them before they spread. For this to work, people who don't show symptoms need to be tested too, since they can still carry and spread the virus.
The federal government has shied away from issuing definitive standards for a state to re-open, which it says should be left to them.
However, it has floated a less official ballpark figure, and scientists at Harvard also set a different standard, which the AP used to measure the testing regimes of each state. Only 10 passed on both counts, and 19 failed on both.
The federal government figure came from a recent briefing, where senior officials said states should be testing at least 2.6% of their populations per month.
However, it wasn't explained how they got to that number, and later it was changed to 2%.
Thirty-two states aren't meeting the 2% threshold, versus 18 which are.
Meanwhile, researchers at Harvard have put out their own recommendation, saying the US needs to be testing about 500,000 people per day overall before easing lockdown restrictions.
When that metric is translated to each individual state, based on their different populations, 23 states are doing enough, and 27 are not.
Overall, just 10 states meet both the federal and Harvard testing minimums. They are North Dakota, New Mexico, Alaska, West Virginia, Utah, Idaho, Tennessee, Alabama, Arkansas, and Delaware.
Some states meet one or the other standard, but not both. For example, Rhode Island is above the 2% federal testing rate, but below the Harvard metric in terms of testing,
Montana meets the Harvard standard but not the federal.
Then there's 19 states who didn't make either standard — all of which are either beginning to reopen or relaxing lockdown rules.
Here are the states in table form:
| Meets neither standard | White House 2% standard only | Harvard standard only | Meets both standards |
| South Dakota | New Jersey | Nebraska | Delaware |
| Colorado | New York | Hawaii | Arkansas |
| Ohio | Massachusetts | Montana | North Dakota |
| Pennsylvania | Connecticut | Wyoming | New Mexico |
| Minnesota | Illinois | Vermont | Alaska |
| Indiana | Michigan | Missouri | West Virginia |
| Oregon | Maryland | Texas | Utah |
| Nevada | Rhode Island | Kansas | Idaho |
| Arizona | Oklahoma | Tennessee | |
| Maine | Wisconsin | Alabama | |
| Washington | Kentucky | ||
| Virginia | North Carolina | ||
| Louisiana | South Carolina | ||
| Mississippi | |||
| California | |||
| Florida | |||
| Georgia | |||
| Iowa | |||
| New Hampshire |
Among them is Georgia, which was one of the first to announce plans to reopen. Though Georgia's reopening plan was largely based on the White House's guidelines, President Trump came out to condemn the plan when his advisors said that it could lead to a resurgence of cases in the state.
Georgia's shelter-in-place ordered ended on April 30, and businesses like hairdressers and theaters have started to reopen.
Also on the list in Nevada, home to the gambling capital of Las Vegas. Las Vegas Mayor Carolyn Goodman drew criticism last month when she said that the city should reopen and act as a "control group" to show what happens to coronavirus cases without social distancing.
While Nevada's stay-at-home order is being extended to mid-May, the governor is now allowing residents to pay golf and tennis and for retail stores to reopen for curbside pickup.
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