Coronavirus: Graphic shows how far behind US is on testing despite Trump’s claims

A new graphic shows stark differences in testing for coronavirus between the United States and South Korea, which experts say could cost lives.

Despite Donald Trump claiming the United States had “tremendous control” over the coronavirus, nationwide testing for the illness was far lower than in South Korea during the initial weeks of the outbreak. Health officials from the US and South Korea both confirmed the first cases of Covid-19 in their countries on 20 January.

However, while South Korea went on to test 274,000 for the virus — a move that experts said ultimately slowed the spread of the virus throughout the country — the US only tested 25,000 people during that same period.

As of yesterday, still only 41,000 Americans had been tested for the deadly illness - far shorter than South Korea - as federal and state officials begin to roll out similar drive-through testing methods in regions battling extensive outbreaks of the virus.

The graphic was posted online on Wednesday by the progressive policy institute Centre for American Progress Action Fund.

The group wrote in a statement: “Trump's failure to provide widespread COVID-19 testing is costing American lives.”​

The beginning weeks of a pandemic are typically the most important time to work towards containing the virus and slowing down the curve, which prevents a nation’s health care system from reaching overcapacity due to an influx of sick patients.

But the US failed to roll out nationwide testing during the first months of the outbreak due to a number of reported issues, from bureaucratic red-tape and stringent requirements for testing to a lack of proprietary kits used by the US Centre for Disease Control and a slow response from the Trump administration to confront the crisis.

Meanwhile, South Korea was heavily investing in additional medical supplies and equipment, building out drive-through swab collections and devising other accelerated methods to test its population for the virus.

That work slowed the transmission of the virus within South Korea to a point where the country’s official count has begun to drop, reporting only 74 cases on Tuesday after reaching a peak of 909 new cases on 29 February.

Cases have soared in the US to at least 8,700 as every state in the country confirmed they had been impacted by the outbreak. Officials have suggested the true number of cases was likely far higher, citing the initial issues in distributing tests.

Though his administration has now sought out a nearly $1 trillion economic relief package to help Americans deal with the outbreak and its impact on daily life and the US economy, the president largely dismissed the pandemic as a non-issue until recently in public statements and in multiple press briefings.

In January, Mr Trump told CNBC he was “not at all” concerned about the virus, saying: “It’s going to be just fine … we have it totally under control.”

But on Wednesday, the president wrote in a tweet that he had “always” taken Covid-19 seriously, referring to it as the “Chinese virus” and adding: “The Fake News new narrative is disgraceful [and] false!”