The number of confirmed coronavirus infections in the United States topped one million on Tuesday, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.
The pandemic has claimed the lives of more than 57,000 people in the US, which leads the world in the number of confirmed infections with 1,002,498 by the Baltimore-based school’s latest count.
Earlier, US President Donald Trump had said that the US is “doing far more, and better, testing than any other country in the world”.
The latest data shows 5,593,495 tests have been carried out in the US, and that is more tests in total than any other country.
But the US has far more people to test than most other nations, with a population of about 328 million, and in terms of tests per capita it is still behind others.
Exact testing comparisons can be difficult. Some countries count the number of people tested, while others count the total number of tests carried out as someone can be tested several times over if the first test doesn’t work properly.
Looking at the latest data available, the US has carried out one test in every 60 people. But Italy has done one in every 35 people, Spain around one in every 45, and Australia around one in every 50.
In early March, the White House conceded that the US did not have enough testing kits, but testing has significantly increased, with the total number carried out more than quadrupling since the start of April.
