Increased use of home testing means covid cases could be undercounted even more than before

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Wed, 2022-04-20 17:51 — mike kraft

Rise in at-home testing means we could be undercounting Covid-19 cases even more than before As the number of Covid-19 cases grows in the United States, experts wonder if the country fully understands the current threat from the pandemic. Jen Christensen, Jacqueline Howard and Deidre McPhillips, CNN CNN

(CNN) ...

The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation estimates that only 7% of positive Covid-19 cases in the US are being detected, meaning case rates are actually 14.5 times higher than officially reported. The last time the infection detection rate was this low was at the outset of the pandemic, in March 2020.

"It's a dynamic situation, and things are changing fast," said Ali Mokdad, a professor and chief strategy officer of population health at the institute.

Cases have long been undercounted, but one reason they may be so off is that the number of Covid-19 tests being done in non-traditional settings, like at home, has already surpassed the number being done in laboratories, according to the National Institutes of Health.

As the use of at-home Covid-19 tests rises, so does the concern that most of those test results go unreported, leading to an undercount of the true number of Covid-19 cases across the country.

Another reason detection is so low, Mokdad said, is that the majority of people infected with the Omicron coronavirus variant don't show symptoms, so they don't even know to take a test. ...

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