Coronavirus: US tests only 11,000 people compared to South Korea's 10,000 per day

Only about 11,000 people have been tested for the coronavirus in the US, health officials told lawmakers on Thursday.

Information regarding the number of tests across the nation has gone largely unreported, with the Centres for Disease Control and Prevention initially refusing to release any firm numbers.

Even Alex Azar, the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, told CNN on Tuesday his agency had no official numbers on how many Americans have received tests.

"We don't know exactly how many, because hundreds of thousands of our tests have gone out to private labs and hospitals that currently do not report in," Mr Azar said.

But in a House briefing on Thursday, lawmakers were told only about 11,000 tests were given to suspected cases compared to the "hundreds of thousands" of tests allegedly sent to labs around the country.

"I don't think anyone is going to leave that briefing satisfied with what's going on with testing right now," Democratic Representative Mike Quigley said. "Bottom line, you leave that briefing and we are not where we need to be and not sure when we are going to get there. We are flying blind."

He added: "I think the first thing they said was we don't have a system that works like it does in other countries to adequately test at this time."'

Politicians were told during the briefing that about 7,300 people were tested through the public sector while another 3,800 received testing through private labs.

"I think everyone leaving that briefing is feeling more confused than ever and disappointed in the numbers that we heard - that we really don't have a system that tests are being distributed and tests are being given," Representative Jan Schakowsky said.

These numbers are significantly lower than the testing happening globally. South Korea reports it's testing an estimated 10,000 people per day across its country. To date, the country has tested about 230,000 people.

How aggressively South Korea is testing is important because it is currently one of the countries that has been hit the hardest by the coronavirus, with 7,869 confirmed cases and 66 deaths as of Thursday. But the country's high numbers could be because it is taking aggressive action to test as many individuals, which could ultimately save more lives.

"Detecting patients at an early stage is very important," South Korea's health minister Park Neung-hu told CNN on Monday. "South Korea is an open society and would like to protect the freedom of people moving around and travelling.

"That is why we're conducting mass amounts of tests."

Data compiled by Business Insider shows the US has issued five tests per every one million people based on numbers issued by the CDC from 8 March. These numbers starkly differ from South Korea, which has issued 3,692 tests per every million of people.

When speaking to the press on Thursday, Mr Trump claimed the US was doing well with its testing. His statement contrasted what lawmakers were told earlier on Thursday about the lack of testing going on.

"We have heavily tested. If an American's coming back or anybody coming back, we have a tremendous testing set up where people coming in have to be tested," the president claimed. These claims contrast reports of testing being unavailable across the nation.

States like New York are now taking control of their own testing by employing private labs, a move other states might follow.