Download the data: we make our full testing dataset, alongside detailed source descriptions, available on Github here.
Testing is our window onto the pandemic and how it is spreading. Without testing we have no way of understanding the pandemic.
It is one of our most important tools in the fight to slow and reduce the spread and impact of the virus. Tests allow us to identify infected individuals, guiding the medical treatment that they receive. It enables the isolation of those infected and the tracing and quarantining of their contacts.1 And it can help allocate medical resources and staff more efficiently.2
In addition, testing for COVID-19 also informs our understanding of the pandemic and the risks it poses in different populations.
This knowledge is important if we are to properly assess the interventions that should be implemented, including very costly interventions such as social distancing and the shutdown of entire regions and industries.
There are two kinds of tests for COVID-19:
- those that test for the presence of the virus, aiming to establish whether an individual is currently infected;
- those that test for the presence of antibodies, aiming to establish whether an individual has been infected at some point in the past.
The testing data we present below relates to the former kind of test. The most common way of performing a test of this type is with a ‘PCR’ test. Here you can find a video that explains how this kind of test works.
The second kind of test – serological tests – are generally still in the research stage of development. This kind of test will be central to establishing how far the coronavirus has spread across the broader population. The Centre for Health Security at Johns Hopkins University provide up to date information on serology tests that are in development or available for use – whether for diagnosis, or only for research purposes.A helpful summary of the current state of testing technologies and their implementation – as of 8 April – can be found in this editorial published in Nature Biomedical Engineering.
Without data on COVID-19 we cannot possibly understand how the pandemic is progressing.
Without data we cannot respond appropriately to the threat; neither as individuals nor as a society. Nor can we learn where countermeasures against the pandemic are working.
The number of confirmed cases is what informs us about the development of the pandemic.
But the confirmation of a case is based on a test. The World Health Organization defines a confirmed case as “a person with laboratory confirmation of COVID-19 infection”.3
Reliable data on testing is therefore necessary to assess the reliability of the data that informs us about the spread of the pandemic: the data on cases and deaths.
Some countries present comprehensive, detailed and regularly updated data. Iceland (here) is one of these countries. Estonia (here) goes even further, showing breakdowns by age, gender and region.
For many countries however, available data on testing is either incomplete or else completely unavailable. This makes it impossible for their citizens and for researchers to assess the extent and significance of their testing efforts.
Our current knowledge of COVID-19 testing – and more importantly of the pandemic itself – would be greatly improved if all countries were able to report all the testing data available to them in the way shown by the best examples.
Those countries that do publish testing data often do not provide the required documentation to make it clear what the provided numbers precisely mean, and this is crucial for meaningful comparisons between countries and over time.
The key questions that any data description on testing data should answer are given in the following checklist. Clear answers to these questions are what is needed to properly interpret and compare published numbers.
For citizens to trust and understand the published data and for countries to learn from each other, it is crucial that every country provides the data on testing in a clearly documented way. We hope this checklist offers helpful guidance.
Our checklist for COVID-19 testing data
1) Is there no data – or it is just hard to find?
Many countries are not yet providing official figures. Others do not do so on a regular basis. The first question to ask, then, is if there is any testing data for a given country.
Equally important is to make the available data findable. Currently, the available data is often not easy to find, because some countries are releasing figures at unpredictable intervals in ad-hoc locations (including social media or press conferences).
2) Do numbers refer to ‘performed tests’ or ‘individuals tested’?
The number of tests performed is different to the number of individuals tested. The reason for this is that it is common for COVID-19 testing that the same person is tested more than once.
Some countries report tests performed, while others report the number of individuals tested.
The source description should state clearly what is counted.
3) Are negative results included? Are pending results included?
It needs to be clear whether or not figures for the total number of tests performed, or the number of people tested, include negative test results, as well as the number of tests that are pending results.
Many sources report the number of individuals who are ‘suspected’ or have been ‘ruled out’. To be reliably included in test counts, it needs to be explicit whether such categories reflect the number of people who are awaiting test results or have tested negatively.
4) Do the figures include all tests conducted in the country, or only some?
Figures reported by countries may only be partial if not all laboratories are reporting to the central authority.
The scope of testing data should be made explicit by the source. For instance, the US CDC make it clear that their figures do not include tests conducted in private labs.
5) Are all regions and laboratories within a country submitting data on the same basis?
Answers to the questions above may vary from region to region. In order to assess the reliability of aggregate testing data, it needs to be clear if heterogenous data is being summed together.
The US COVID Tracking Project, for instance makes it clear that their US totals combine data for tests performed and individuals tested, depending on which is reported by individual states.
6) What period do the published figures refer to?
Cumulative counts of the total number of tests should make clear the date from which the count begins. The key question that needs to be answered is whether the figures published at some date (attempt to) include all tests conducted up to that date.
Because the reporting of tests can take several days, for some countries figures for the last few days may not yet be complete. It needs to be made clear by the source if this may be the case. The US CDC, for instance, makes this clear.
7) Are there any issues that affect the comparability of the data over time?
If we want to look at how testing figures are changing over time, we need to know how any of the factors discussed above may have changed too.
The Netherlands, for instance, makes it clear that not all labs were included in national estimates from the start. As new labs get included, their past cumulative total gets added to the day they begin reporting, creating spikes in the time series.
8) What are the typical testing practices in the country?
Having a sense of how often and when individuals are tested, can help the users of these statistics understand how estimates of tests performed and individuals tested might relate to each other.
For instance, how many tests does a case investigation require? What are the eligibility criteria to be tested? Are health workers, or other specific groups, being routinely retested?
9) Might any of the information above be lost in translation?
People accessing data published in a language in which they are not fluent may misinterpret the data by mistranslating the provided text, which often includes technical terms.
Many countries report testing data in multiple languages – this helps disseminate the information to a broader audience, whilst helping prevent misinterpretations.
Our database on COVID-19 testing data
Our goal at Our World in Data is to provide testing data over time for many countries around the world.
We have started with this effort and will expand it in the coming days.
Our aim is to provide alongside the data a good understanding of the definitions used and any important limitations they might have. The checklist above is what guides our efforts.
At the end of this document you find descriptions of the data for each country. But in many cases sources do not yet provide the detailed descriptions of the data we would like. All the details we have been able to find so far are provided below.
We will be adding to the list of countries shown in the coming days.
The two charts shown here show the total number of tests, or people tested, as indicated in the legend for each series.
The first chart shows the absolute number and the second shows it per thousand people of the country’s population.
For comparisons across the series it is important to understand the definitions of the different measures. These are provided in the country by country notes below.
Download the data: we make our full testing dataset, alongside detailed source descriptions, available on Github.
The two charts shown here show the daily number of tests, or people tested, in absolute terms and per thousand people respectively.
For comparisons across the series it is important to understand the definitions of the different measures. These are provided in the country by country notes below.
Download the data: we make our full testing dataset, alongside detailed source descriptions, available on Github.
Related chart: Number of tests per day (rolling three-day average)
Related chart: Daily tests per thousand (rolling three-day average)
What can data on testing tell us about the pandemic?
No country knows the true number of people infected with COVID-19. All we know is the infection status of those who have been tested.
The total number of people that have tested positive – the number of confirmed cases – is not the total number of people who have been infected. The true number of people infected with COVID-19 is much higher.
Whilst there is no way to infer the true number of infections from testing data, it can help give us a strong indication of the quality of a country’s data on the pandemic and an idea of how informative the number of confirmed cases in a country may be.
Testing coverage
The chart here shows a measure of testing coverage – tests per thousand people.
Countries are reporting testing data in different ways: some report the number of tests, others report the number of people tested. This distinction is important – people may be tested many times, and the number of tests a person has is likely to vary across countries.4
Across different countries, we see an enormous range in testing coverage. In Iceland there have been more than 100 tests per thousand people – far more than in any other country. In Indonesia, testing coverage is very low – only 0.1 tests per thousand people.5
Generally, we would expect that more testing means more reliable data on confirmed cases, for two reasons.
Firstly, a greater degree of testing provides us with a larger ‘sample’ of people for which their infection status is known. If everybody was tested, we would know the true number of people who are infected.
Secondly, it may be the case that countries with a high capacity for testing do not need to ration tests as much. Where the capacity for testing is low, tests may be reserved (or ‘rationed’) for particularly high-risk groups. Such rationing is one of the reasons that tested people are not representative of the wider population.
As such, where testing coverage is higher, the ‘sample’ of tested people may provide a less biased idea of the true prevalence of the virus.6
Download the data: we make our full testing dataset, alongside detailed source descriptions, available on Github.
The number of tests per confirmed case
A further complication with using testing coverage as an indicator of reliability, is that the number of tests needed to have an accurate picture of the spread of the virus varies over the course of an outbreak.
At the beginning of an outbreak, where the number of people infected with the virus is low, a much smaller number of tests are needed to accurately assess the spread of the virus.
As the virus infects more people, testing coverage also needs to expand in order to provide a reliable picture of the true number of infected people.
For this reason it is helpful to look at the number of tests performed for each confirmed case. This gives us an indication of the scale of testing that accounts for the different stages each country may be in its outbreak.
The bar chart shows the number of tests, or people tested per confirmed case. The data can also be viewed over time in this chart.
The key insight from this metric is that there are very large differences between countries.
In some countries the number of tests are many times higher than the number of confirmed cases. As of 11 April, in Vietnam more than 400 tests had been conducted for each confirmed case. In Taiwan and Russia there had been around a hundred tests for each confirmed case.
But in other countries testing is very low relative to the number of confirmed cases. The US, the UK and Ecuador had performed around 5 tests or fewer for every confirmed case.
Download the data: we make our full testing dataset, alongside detailed source descriptions, available on Github.
What can we learn from these measures about the pandemic?
Both testing coverage and the number of tests per confirmed case help us understand what we can know about the true spread of the virus from data on confirmed cases.
But it is the number of tests per confirmed case that is arguably the most helpful in this regard, because this accounts for the fact that a smaller outbreak requires less testing.
Consider for instance the difference between three countries: the UK, Australia and Taiwan.
These countries are highlighted in the chart here, which shows the number of tests per million against the number of confirmed cases per million. The dotted comparison lines show the points on the chart where the number of tests are a fixed number of times larger than the number of confirmed cases – 2, 5, 10, 20, 50, 100, 200 and 500 times larger.
In terms of testing coverage the UK appears to be ahead of Taiwan, with at least twice the number of people tested per thousand, as of 11 April.7
But on the same date, there were 60 times more confirmed cases per million in the UK than in Taiwan – 1,035 per million and 16 cases per million respectively.
So whilst testing relative to population size is higher in the UK, testing relative to the size of the outbreak is much, much higher in Taiwan.
As of 11 April, in Taiwan one case was confirmed for every 120 tests. In the UK, a case was confirmed in fewer than every four tests.8
In Australia, testing coverage is much higher than in Taiwan. But in terms of the number of tests per confirmed case, the countries are much closer – one case was confirmed for every 55 tests in Australia as of 11 April. A number of issues with the data on testing – discussed here – mean that small differences between countries should not be overinterpreted.
But the very large differences – such as those seen between Taiwan, Australia and the UK – do tell us something important about the quality of the data.
A country that performs very few tests for each case it confirms is not testing widely enough for the number of confirmed cases to paint a reliable picture of the true spread of the virus. Whilst those people with the most severe symptoms may have been tested in such countries, there are likely to be many times more people with mild or no symptoms that were never tested.
Testing in the UK has not kept pace with the advancing outbreak. The number of people tested per confirmed case fell rapidly throughout March and early April – from more than 400, to less than 4. The current low level of testing, relative to the size of the outbreak, suggests that the true number of infections in the UK is likely to be far higher than the number of confirmed cases.
The large number of tests for each confirmed case in Taiwan and Australia suggests that the number of confirmed cases paint a much more reliable picture of the true number of infections in these countries.
Researchers from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine – Timothy Russel, Joel Hellewell, Sam Abbott and others – reach similar conclusions about the UK and Australia via a different method.9 They estimate the degree to which countries’ confirmed cases may underestimate total symptomatic cases by applying the case fatality rate (we explain this metric in detail here) observed in large studies in China and South Korea to data on the number of COVID-19 deaths in countries around the world.
They estimate that in Australia the number of confirmed cases reflect more than three quarters of the total number of symptomatic cases in the country. For the UK, they estimate that confirmed cases represent less than one in twenty symptomatic cases.10
As such, the gap between the UK and Australia in terms of the true number of infections is likely to be far higher than that indicated by their confirmed cases.
The intuition behind these researchers’ estimates is that where the number of confirmed cases looks low against the number of deaths, this is a clear indication that the true number of cases is likely to be much, much higher. But the fundamental reason for this is the limited extent of testing.
The rate of tests per case thus gives us another useful way of approaching the same question, by looking at the extent of testing relative to the number of cases directly.
Why are not all countries included in our data?
We do not have testing data for all countries.
For some countries we are aware of a source of data and are currently in the process of adding it to our dataset.
For others we are not aware of any official source of testing data.
If you are aware of a source of testing data for a country that we do not currently list, you can help us by filling out this Google Form.
Source information country by country
Below is the list of the 78 countries for which we have data. We will be adding to this list in the coming days.
At the very bottom of this post, you can also find the list of countries for which we have attempted to collect data but could not find official sources.
You can download the full dataset alongside the detailed source descriptions on GitHub.
Or else click to jump to the detailed source description and the latest data for that country:
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Bahrain
Bangladesh
Belgium
Bolivia
Bulgaria
Canada
Chile
Colombia
Costa Rica
Croatia
Cuba
Czech Republic
Denmark
Ecuador
El Salvador
Estonia
Ethiopia
Finland
France
Germany
Ghana
Greece
Hong Kong
Hungary
Iceland
India
Indonesia
Iran
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Kazakhstan
Kenya
Latvia
Lithuania
Luxembourg
Malaysia
Mexico
Morocco
Myanmar
Nepal
Netherlands
New Zealand
Nigeria
Norway
Pakistan
Panama
Paraguay
Peru
Philippines
Poland
Portugal
Romania
Russia
Rwanda
Senegal
Serbia
Singapore
Slovakia
Slovenia
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Taiwan
Thailand
Tunisia
Turkey
Uganda
United Kingdom
United States
Uruguay
Vietnam
Source: Government of Argentina
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 1.1 per thousand people; 49,905 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Two reports are published daily by the government of Argentina. Since 8th April the morning report gives the cumulative total of “tests carried out” in the country. No information is given on the geographical scope and number of labs included.
Source: Australian Department for Health; State-level Governments
Short description: The source reports this data as the ‘number of tests conducted’. However, based on the context, it is unclear whether this refers to the total number of tests conducted, or number of people who have been tested.
Latest estimate: 20.34 per thousand people; 516,705 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Australian Department for Health publish daily epidemiological reports including a figure of total tests conducted, along with a positive test rate. The latter however relates to confirmed cases as a percentage of the tests conducted figure, potentially suggesting that the latter may relate to individuals tested.
Source: Austria Ministry for Health
Short description: The source reports this data as the ‘number of tests carried out so far’. However, based on the context, it is unclear whether this refers to the total number of tests conducted, or number of people who have been tested.
Latest estimate: 26.48 per thousand people; 232,537 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Austrian Ministry for Health publishes daily updates on the number of confirmed cases, deaths and tests carried out to date.
This daily update states the ‘number of tests carried out so far/to date’ i.e. the cumulative number of tests. However, what is unclear is whether this refers to the number of tests conducted, or the number of people who have been tested.
The first report of this kind on the Austrian Ministry for Health website is from the 25th of February; we do not know the first date that testing began, only that 218 tests had been carried out as of 25th February. The Austrian Ministry of Health updates its main page on Coronavirus reports daily; historic time-series trends can be compiled using previous versions of this webpage at Web Archive.
Source: Bahrain Ministry of Health
Short description: The source reports the ‘number of assessments’ conducted. It is unclear whether this refers to the total number of tests conducted, or the number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 69.13 per thousand people; 117,374 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Bahrainian Ministry of Health publishes frequent updates (not daily, but with high frequency) on the number of confirmed cases, status of existing cases and number of assessments conducted.
These figures represent the cumulative tests to that given date. It is not clear whether this refers to the total number of tests conducted, or the number of people tested.
These updates are not provided daily – typically every few days, so a daily time-series is not available. However, using web archives we can construct a time-series of tests conducted over time based on these frequent updates. It is not clear when testing first began; data is only available from 5th March where it was reported that 5334 tests had been conducted.
Source: Government of Bangladesh
Short description: The number of samples tested.
Latest estimate: 0.27 per thousand people; 46,485 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Government of Bangladesh provides data on the total number of samples tested (“মোট পরিক্ষাকৃত নমুনার সংখ্যা”) to date in this official dashboard. The full time series of samples tested can be downloaded in the detailed dashboard, which dates back to March 4th 2020.
It is not clear whether the reported figures include samples in which the test results are pending.
Source: Sciensano (Belgian institute for health)
Short description: The figures are labelled as the ‘total number of tests performed’. Note that from other countries, we see that such a label can be consistent with figures relating to the number of individuals tested.
Latest estimate: 18.38 per thousand people; 213,559 in total (as of 25 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Belgian institute for health reports the number of tests performed daily in CSV and JSON format. The date of is the date of laboratory diagnosis, or when not available, the date of sampling is used. A codebook is available.
Source: Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of cases tested.
Latest estimate: 0.5 per thousand people; 5,791 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Official testing data from the Bolivian Ministry of Health is reported in this dashboard, which provides a breakdown of the cumulative number of confirmed, suspected, and discarded cases to date along with the number of deaths and recoveries. We assume that the number of discarded cases (“casos descartados”) refers to the number of cases with negative test results. Under this assumption, we measure the total number of cases tested to date as the sum of the number of confirmed and discarded cases.
Unfortunately, the official dashboard does not provide a time series of the number of cases tested each day since testing began. Instead, the dashboard only displays a daily snapshot of the total cases tested to date. Since we did not begin monitoring this dashboard until April 15th 2020, we construct a time series dating back to March 21st 2020 using data provided in this unofficial Github repository, which we have cross-referenced against data in the official dashboard for a sample of dates.
Source: Bulgaria COVID-19 Information Portal
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 3.89 per thousand people; 27,000 in total (as of 22 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Bulgaria’s official COVID-19 information portal provides irregular updates of the cumulative number of ‘tests done’.
Using web archives we reconstruct the testing time series starting from 11th April. We cannot say with certainty when testing began, only that the earliest observation available to us begins from the 11th April. For 19th April, we take the figure provided in Bulgaria’s COVID-19 dashboard as no snapshot was available using web archives. The test figures provided in the dashboard match the figures provided by the information portal for all other dates available.
Google Translate was used while compiling this data so this may affect our interpretation of the data.
Source: Government of Canada
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 18.82 per thousand people; 707,508 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
A daily time series is not available on the Government of Canada’s website. It updates the page daily to report the latest cumulative number of people tested.
To build a time series we have aggregated the data from previous version’s of the Government of Canada website from Web Archive.
Data refers to the number of patients tested: it is the sum of positive and negative results (which are also provided), hence it does not include people who have their test results pending.
By combining daily snapshots, there is a large break/jump in the series from 17th to 18th March 2020. This is likely (the Government of Canada website does not make the reasoning clear, only publishes a slightly different format of table) the result of a large backlog of tests waiting to be processed. This makes the data misleading to use in time-series format prior to 18th March. We therefore only use data from 18th March onwards for comparability.
Source: Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 8.44 per thousand people; 155,975 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Reports are published daily by the Chilean Ministry of Health. The data is collected and aggregated by volunteers and published on Github. No information is given on the geographical scope and number of labs included.
Source: National Institute of Health
Short description: The number of samples processed.
Latest estimate: 1.74 per thousand people; 87,157 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Colombian National Institute of Health publishes a dashboard on COVID-19, updated daily. Page 4 of the embedded report includes a graph on “histórico de muestras” (sample history), with a cumulative number of “muestras procesadas” (samples processed).
The report says that “the daily sample chart is based on information loaded by all laboratories that perform SARS-CoV2 diagnostics. At this time, some laboratories are completing the dates for conducting the tests, so the graph will vary as these data are completed.”
Because of this, our time series does not include samples marked as “S.F.” (“Sin Fecha”) in the leftmost bar of the graph; these can represent a high number of samples (3867 as of 21 April 2020).
Source: Costa Rican Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 1.76 per thousand people; 8,872 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Costa Rican Ministry of Health produce daily update reports of confirmed cases, deaths and test results.
These daily reports state the daily number of people who have been tested – given as the number of confirmed cases (‘Confirma contagio’) and number of people with negative results (‘Descarta contagio’) (thus the figures do not include pending tests). We can use these daily updates to construct a full time-series. This has been made downloadable.
Daily reports with figures on testing are only available dating back to 11th March. We therefore do not know the first date of testing, or daily figures prior to this date.
Source: Government of Croatia
Short description: Testing figures were reported as “samples tested” prior to March 24th 2020, but have been reported as “tests performed” since.
Latest estimate: 7.97 per thousand people; 32,817 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Government of Croatia provides daily updates of confirmed cases, deaths, and testing figures here. It is unclear whether the reported figures include tests for which the results are pending.
Data from March 24th 2020 onwards may not be comparable to figures from prior dates. Prior to March 24th, testing figures were reported in terms of “samples tested” (e.g. “Ukupno je 317 testiranih uzoraka…”). From March 24th onwards, testing figures have been reported in terms of “tests performed” (e.g. “Dosad je obavljeno ukupno 3.159 testiranja”). It is unclear whether this change in wording reflects an actual change in which figures are reported.
We have found testing data dating back to March 3rd 2020, at which point 247 samples had been tested to date. It is not clear when the first sample was tested.
Source: Ministry of Public Health
Short description: Units are unclear, and could refer to the number of tests performed, or people tested.
Latest estimate: 3.46 per thousand people; 39,828 in total (as of 25 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Ministry of Public Health publishes data on its website, which is collected and republished by the COVID-19 Cuba Data project in a dashboard and on GitHub. It includes a time series for the number of tests.
However the context in which the figures are published suggests that these numbers may actually refer to the number of individuals tested. A breakdown into positive and negative results is given, along with a positive test rate. It is also unclear whether the reported figures include tests for which the results are pending.
Source: Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 20.55 per thousand people; 218,474 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Ministry of Health publishes a data set containing incremental and cumulative daily numbers of COVID-19 tests performed according to laboratory reports. It is updated daily and accessible in CSV and JSON format.
Source: Danish Health Authority
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 26.88 per thousand people; 155,810 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Danish Statum Serum Institute provides epidemiological update reports on confirmed cases, deaths, testing and demographic details of each.
It provides daily statistics on the number of people tested for COVID-19, and the number and share of people that tested positive.
The most recent epidemiological status reports provides the daily data for the previous two weeks (dating back to the 25th March), with a cumulative figure from 7 Jan – 25 March given.
The daily data for earlier dates can be seen in a chart that the Insitute show in their monitoring reports page.
Source: Government of Ecuador
Short description: The number of cases tested.
Latest estimate: 2.64 per thousand people; 45,857 in total (as of 24 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Government of Ecuador publish daily updates in the form of situation reports and summary infographics. These report the number and status of confirmed cases, deaths and number of samples tested. This data is available daily from 18th March; reports and infographics prior to this date do not include the number of samples tested. But all figures are dated cumulative since 29th February.
The source reports the number of confirmed (‘confirmados’) and negative (‘descartados’) cases, which we sum to get the number of cases tested.
Source: Government of El Salvador
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 2.88 per thousand people; 18,686 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The government of El Salvador publishes an online dashboard with figures and graphs about the epidemic, including the number of tests performed (“pruebas COVID19 realizadas hasta hoy”). No information is given on the geographical scope and number of labs included.
Source: Estonian Central Health Information System and Patient Portal
Short description: The source reports this as the ‘number of tests administered’. However, based on the context, it is unclear whether this refers to the total number of tests conducted, or number of people who have been tested.
Latest estimate: 37.22 per thousand people; 48,403 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Estonian Central Health Information System and Patient Portal provides a daily update of the number of tests administered on a given day. However, it is currently unclear whether this refers to the number of tests administered or number of people tested. It also reports a figure on the share of these tests which were positive; this would suggest it reflects the number of people of tested, however we cannot say with certainty without further information.
A complete time-series from 25th February is available, and is updated daily.
Source: Ethiopian Public Health Institute
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 0.12 per thousand people; 13,645 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Ethiopian Public Health Institute in collaboration with the Ethiopian Ministry of Health provides daily press releases of the number of tests performed to date. It is not clear whether these figures refer to the number of samples tested or the number of people tested. It is also unclear whether the reported figures include tests for which the results are pending.
The earliest record we have found is for March 17th 2020, at which point 79 tests had been performed to date. It is unclear when the first test was performed.
Source: Finnish Department of Health and Welfare COVID-19 data dashboard
Short description: The number of samples tested.
Latest estimate: 14.77 per thousand people; 82,437 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Finnish Department of Health and Welfare publishes a dashboard of confirmed cases, deaths and tests sampled.
The dashboard provides daily figures of samples tested per day (and cumulative test numbers on a separate tab). We have copied this time-series as presented in the original source. It’s important to note that when figures exceed 1000, the Finnish Department of Health and Welfare report samples to the nearest hundred (e.g. 1.6k).
From the available documention we cannot be entirely certain whether ‘samples tested’ refers to the number of tests or number of people tested, given the general ambiguity in the usage of these terms internationally. However, a literal interpretation of the figures as the number of samples tested is consistent with further descriptions of the testing data provided here.
The data description notes that tests are being rationed and allocated according to the following strategy: “Samples are taken primarily from patients with severe symptoms of respiratory infection and from health and social care staff to ensure staff health and labor adequacy….Attention has also been paid to vulnerable groups of patients with some underlying disease and to those over 70 years of age.”
This data series extends to the 27th February, when test figures were very low (9 tests per day). It is likely this is was the first day, or close to the first day of testing.
Source: Agence nationale de santé publique
Short description: The testing figures are labelled as ‘number of tests’ in the source, but as of 2 April we are unsure of the right interpretation of the units.
Latest estimate: 9.06 per thousand people; 595,154 in total (as of 21 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The source publishes epidemiological updates at irregular intervals. The latest update, as of 24th April, was published on the 23rd April. The updates include a figure for the number of tests (‘Nombre de tests’). However the context in which the figures are published suggests that these numbers may actually refer to the number of individuals tested. A breakdown into positive and negative results are given, along with a positive test rate.
Such a breakdown seems counter-intuitive if the figures relate to the number of tests performed rather than the number of individuals tested. In the former case, it would mean that the tests from people who had two two tests – e.g. both positive – would be added to tests of people who had five tests – e.g. three negative and two positive.
The figures in the time series relate to tests performed since 24 February. In the 24 March update, in addition to the previously reported hospital tests, laboratory tests are also reported. Only the total number of laboratory tests performed between 24 February and 24 March is presented, without a time series. Our figure for 24 March adds the cumulative number of laboratory tests since 24 February (6,500) to the hospital tests figure (101,046). As such 24 March represents a break in the series.
Source: Robert Koch Institut
Short description: The number of tests performed. Note that the number of laboratories reporting in the data seems to vary from week to week.
Latest estimate: 25.11 per thousand people; 2,072,669 in total (as of 19 April 2020).
Detailed description:
To determine how many laboratory tests regarding SARS-CoV-2 are carried out per calendar week in Germany and how many tests are positive or negative, the RKI has started a Germany-wide laboratory query. However, the number of laboratories reporting data seems to vary from week to week.
The report published on 22 April states that “from the beginning of the collection up to and including calendar week 16/2020”:
– The cumulative total of samples tested was 2,072,669;
– For calendar week 16 (which ends on 19 April), 161 labs reported 323,449 samples tested;
– For calendar week 15 (which ends on 12 April), 160 labs reported 378,881 samples tested;
– For calendar week 14 (which ends on 5 April), 152 labs reported 408,173 samples tested;
– For calendar week 13 (which ends on 29 March), 150 labs reported 361,374 samples tested;
– For calendar week 12 (which ends on 22 March), 152 labs reported 348619 samples tested;
– For calendar week 11 (which ends on 15 March), 114 labs reported 127457 samples tested.
– Up to and including calendar week 10 (which ends on 8 March), 90 labs reported 124,716 samples tested.
By subtracting each weekly change from the cumulative total, we retrospectively work out the cumulative totals by the end of each week.
Since laboratories can post-check the tests of past calendar weeks in the RKI test number query, previous figures may be revised upwards slightly in subsequent reports. The source is explicit that these figures refer to tests performed and that this will not equal the number of people tested, because of multiple tests per person.
Source: Outbreak Response Management
Short description: The units are unclear. Some press releases mention “people tested”, while others give figures for “samples tested”.
Latest estimate: 2.23 per thousand people; 68,591 in total (as of 19 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Outbreak Response Management provides daily situation updates on the total number of people or total samples tested for the coronavirus.
Using web archives, we reconstruct a time series. Situation updates report the total number of people tested from 28th March, then the total number of samples tested from 18th April. However, the figures given from one period to the other seem to line up correctly, thus we are not certain what the true units are.
On 24th April, the daily situation update in text format was replaced with an interactive dashboard, still at the same URL. As far we know, this dashboard no longer reports testing data.
Source: The National Organization of Public Health
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 5.82 per thousand people; 64,608 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Greek National Organization of Public Health publishes daily COVID-19 reports on confirmed cases, deaths and samples tested.
It refers to its testing data as the number of people who have tested positive and negative to date: this means figures represent the number of people tested, excluding those pending results.
The official website provides a list of daily reports. Unfortunately many reports are missing meaning a full daily time-series cannot be constructed. It is unclear how far back testing extends; the earliest available report is on 20th March when 7172 people had been tested.
Source: Centre for Health Protection, Department of Health
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 19.3 per thousand people; 145,640 in total (as of 21 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Hong Kong Centre for Health Protection, Department of Health provides monthly numbers of the COVID-19 viral tests performed. We calculate the cumulative number of tests performed each month in our series. The last update with provisional data is up until 14th April 2020, this information is updated once a week by the Centre for Health Protection.
Tests performed are conducted by the Public Health Laboratory Services Branch of the Department of Health and Hospital Authority. We are not aware of any aggregation issues.
The cumulative total begins from 01/01/2020.
Source: Government of Hungary
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 6.82 per thousand people; 65,625 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Official governmental data is collected by the visual and data journalism team of Budapest-based investigative center Atlatszo, and made accessible in a public spreadsheet. No information is given on the geographical scope and number of labs included.
Source: Office of the Director of Public Health
Short description: The source reports this as the ‘number of samples tested’. However, based on the context, it is unclear whether this refers to the total number of tests conducted, or number of people who have been tested.
Latest estimate: 135 per thousand people; 46,336 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Icelandic Office of Public Health publishes a complete time-series of daily samples tested. This time-series is broken down by the two main labs where these tests are sampled.
It is not clear from the context whether this reflects the number of tests, or the number of people who are tested.
The daily time-series data only extends back to 27th February. However, the source shows clearly via annotation on the testing chart that between 1st and 26th February, 41 samples had been tested. We do therefore not know the days across which these samples were taken, only that as of 26th February, the total cumulative number of samples tested was 41.
Source #1: Indian Council of Medical Research
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 0.38 per thousand people; 525,667 in total (as of 24 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The ICMR reports separate figures for both “samples tested” and “people tested” at press conferences and in press releases (shown separately in the charts above). No other details are provided.
The press releases from ICMR do not always stay online for very long. The reason for this is unknown, but the releases are being backed up at this Github repository.
On some occasions there appear to have been more than one update released per day. Where we are aware of multiple observations for the day, we show the number for the earlier release.
Source #2: Indian Council of Medical Research
Short description: The number of samples tested.
Latest estimate: 0.48 per thousand people; 665,819 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The ICMR reports separate figures for both “samples tested” and “people tested” at press conferences and in press releases (shown separately in the charts above). No other details are provided.
The press releases from ICMR do not always stay online for very long. The reason for this is unknown, but the releases are being backed up at this Github repository.
On some occasions there appear to have been more than one update released per day. Where we are aware of multiple observations for the day, we show the number for the earlier release.
Source #1: Emerging infections, Indonesian Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of cases tested.
Latest estimate: 0.22 per thousand people; 59,409 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Indonesian Ministry of Health updates its COVID-19 dashboard twice a day but doesn’t keep time series of past data. The two URLs (1, 2) seem to lead to the exact same dashboard.
The dashboard shows the latest number of “Kasus dg Spesimen Diperiksa”, which translates to “Cases with Specimens Checked”.
We found past values using Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Source #2: Emerging infections, Indonesian Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of cases tested.
Latest estimate: 0.19 per thousand people; 52,541 in total (as of 25 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Indonesian Ministry of Health updates its COVID-19 dashboard twice a day but doesn’t keep time series of past data. The two URLs (1, 2) seem to lead to the exact same dashboard.
The dashboard shows the latest number of “Kasus dg Spesimen Diperiksa”, which translates to “Cases with Specimens Checked”.
We found past values using Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.
Source: Government of Iran
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 5.04 per thousand people; 421,313 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Government of Iran provides daily press releases of the cumulative number of tests performed to date. It is not clear whether the reported figures refer to the number of samples tested or number of people tested. It is also unclear whether the reported figures include tests for which the results are pending.
We have found testing data dating back to April 5th 2020, at which point 189,790 tests had been conducted to date. It is not clear when the first test was conducted.
Source: Department of Health
Short description: The units are unclear. Some press releases mention “tests carried out”, while others give figures for “people tested”.
Latest estimate: 22.83 per thousand people; 111,584 in total (as of 21 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Irish Department of Health publishes daily press releases, which sometimes (about once a week) include an updated cumulative total for national tests.
Early documents (e.g. 9 March) gave a number of “people tested”, but more recent ones mention “tests carried out”. As of 4 April we are not exactly sure what these numbers describe (tests or people).
No other details about what the numbers refer to are known.
Source: Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 29.98 per thousand people; 261,266 in total (as of 21 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Israel Ministry of Health publishes COVID-19 updates on its official channel on Telegram. The data is collected and made available on Github.
On 19 April 2020, the person who maintains the GitHub repository confirmed to us that the units refer to the number of tests performed, after checking the information with the Ministry of Health.
No information is given on the geographical scope and number of labs included.
Source #1: Ministero della Salute
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 20.47 per thousand people; 1,210,639 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The official data provided by the Ministry of Health is compiled by the Department of Civil Protection on GitHub. Figures relate to the total number of people tested. This figure is available for each individual region separately at the source indicated. However it appears that data is missing for individual regions for particular dates – we assume that these are also missing from the aggregate total for Italy that we provide. The list of missing data, in English, can be seen at the bottom of this data dashboard built by Franco Mossotto.
It is clear that there are delays in timeline running up to a test being reported – both in terms of the time it takes for a symptomatic person to receive a test, and in the time for that test to then get reported in the data. For one region, Lombardy, an investigation found the latter delay to be around 3-4 days.
There is significant variation in testing practices – in terms of how many tests are conducted and how they are allocated across the population – across regions and these practices have also changed over time. The extent to which tests pending results are included appears to vary across regions.
Pietro Monticone and Riccardo Valperga have written a very helpful and detailed description of these data quality issues here in GitHub.
Source #2: Ministero della Salute
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 29.72 per thousand people; 1,757,659 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The official data provided by the Ministry of Health is compiled by the Department of Civil Protection on GitHub. Figures relate to the total number of tests performed. This figure is available for each individual region separately at the source indicated. However it appears that data is missing for individual regions for particular dates – we assume that these are also missing from the aggregate total for Italy that we provide. The list of missing data, in English, can be seen at the bottom of this data dashboard built by Franco Mossotto.
It is clear that there are delays in timeline running up to a test being reported – both in terms of the time it takes for a symptomatic person to receive a test, and in the time for that test to then get reported in the data. For one region, Lombardy, an investigation found the latter delay to be around 3-4 days.
There is significant variation in testing practices – in terms of how many tests are conducted and how they are allocated across the population – across regions and these practices have also changed over time. The extent to which tests pending results are included appears to vary across regions.
Pietro Monticone and Riccardo Valperga have written a very helpful and detailed description of these data quality issues here in GitHub.
Source #1: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare Press Release
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 1.19 per thousand people; 150,692 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare issues daily reports for the total number of people tested. Daily changes in the number of people tested are included in parentheses. For the 3rd April, the daily changes do not reconcile with the cumulative totals. Moreover, it is clear that revisions to past data are simply added to the new cumulative total, making the time series of ‘daily tests’ too erratic to be published.
This includes two cases where the cumulative number of people tested falls: (1) 19/03 and (2) 25/03. For case (1) see footnote 4 which indicates a past mistake has been noticed and the cumulative figure revised on the date to adjust for this. For case (2), we could not find the associated footnote.
It isn’t clear what exact date these cumulative tests date back to, but it is earlier than 10 Feb when the source reports 938 people had been tested. Prior to the 10 Feb, the press releases provide reports of coronavirus infections for the Diamond Princess cruise ship quarantined in Yokohama port. We do not report these numbers in the time series as it is unclear how they relate to the cumulative totals.
Google translate was used while compiling this data so this may affect our interpretation of the data.
Source #2: Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare Press Release
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 1.84 per thousand people; 232,812 in total (as of 25 April 2020).
Detailed description:
On 11th April 2020, the MOH started providing a daily time series on the “Implementation status of PCR tests for new coronavirus in Japan (based on the data on which results were determined” (via Google translate).
With each update, some daily totals are revised from earlier releases of the time series.
Google translate was used while compiling this data so this may affect our interpretation of the data.
Source: Kazakhstan National Center for Public Health
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 10.45 per thousand people; 196,298 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Kazakhstan National Center for Public Health provides an official time series of the total number of tests performed to date. It is unclear whether the reported figures include tests for which the results are pending.
The website explicitly states that “one person could be tested several times”, indicating that the number of tests performed (“Проведено тестов”) is not equivalent to the number of people tested.
The earliest reported figure is from March 13th 2020, at which point 126 tests had been conducted. It is unclear whether March 13th was the first date on which tests were conducted.
Source: Ministry of Health
Short description: Units are unclear, and could refer to the number of samples tested, or people tested.
Latest estimate: 0.31 per thousand people; 16,738 in total (as of 24 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Kenya Ministry of Health provides daily press releases and tweets (@MOH_Kenya), sometimes reporting the number of tests conducted in the past 24 hours and sometimes reporting the total number of tests conducted to date.
It is not clear whether the reported figures refer to the number of samples tested or number of people tested, since the press releases and tweets variably use the terminology “samples tested”, “tests conducted”, and “people tested” at different points in time. It is also unclear whether the reported figures include tests for which the results are pending.
We have found testing data dating back to March 6th 2020, at which point 31 tests had been conducted to date. It is not clear when the first test was conducted.
Source: Center for Disease Prevention and Control
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 25.98 per thousand people; 49,181 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Center for Disease Prevention and Control publishes the number of tests performed in the last 24 hours on the Latvian Open Data Portal. No information is given on the geographical scope and number of labs included.
Source: Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of analysed samples. Note that from other countries, we see that such a label can be consistent with figures relating to the number of individuals tested.
Latest estimate: 37.43 per thousand people; 106,775 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
A time series has not yet been released. The Ministry of Health provides fairly regular updates of the number of samples that have been analyzed for suspected coronavirus, to date. It is not clear the exact date these cumulative figures date back to.
The source provides the number of confirmed cases, deaths, survivors, and the number investigated the previous day but it is not entirely clear whether pending samples are included in the total to date or not.
Google translate was used while compiling this data so this may affect our interpretation of the data.
Source: Luxembourg Government situation update
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 64.58 per thousand people; 39,003 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Luxembourg government provides a daily situation update listing the tests carried out since the beginning of the crisis. The number of people who tested positive is reported as a separate figure which may suggest “tests carried out” refers to the number of people tested.
Using web archives, we construct a daily time series of total tests carried out by looking at earlier snapshots of the website. Gaps in the series are due to the lack of archived pages for those particular dates. Archives dating back to April 1st report the total number of tests analysed. We cannot say with certainty when testing began, only that reporting began from April 1st. Prior to 1st April, the government reported the number of confirmed cases.
Source: Ministry of Health Malaysia
Short description: The number of cases tested, including pending.
Latest estimate: 4.23 per thousand people; 138,898 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
A time series has not yet been released. The figures provided are daily updates to the total number of cases tested. It is not clear the exact date these cumulative figures date back to. The earliest release we have been able to find begins from the 14th February.
The source provides a breakdown of the number of positive, negative, and still pending tests. We report total tests as the sum of positive and negative tests, excluding pending tests. The title of the table indicates that these figures relate to cases. As far as we are aware, cases are equivalent to individuals tested.
In a previous version of this page, we reported total tests as the sum of positive, negative, and pending tests. However, since April 7th 2020, the source has not reported the number of pending tests each day. For this reason, we have updated the time series so that total tests is equal to the sum of positive and negative tests (excluding pending tests) for all days on which we report data.
Source: Health Secretary
Short description: The number of cases tested.
Latest estimate: 0.45 per thousand people; 60,023 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Mexican Health Secretary publishes a dataset on datos.gob.mx, the open data platform of the Mexican government.
The file can be downloaded in CSV format, and gives detailed information on each case (1 row per case). The RESULTADO column gives the status of the case, with 1 = CONFIRMED and 2 = NEGATIVE. The resulting tally can also be found on the government’s COVID-19 dashboard.
While geographical coverage is complete, there is a time lag in the publication of the data, and recent days systematically show temporary low figures. Data starts on 1 January 2020; we do now know if this is because tests started on that date or because earlier data is not available.
The information comes from the Epidemiological Surveillance System for Viral Respiratory Diseases, as reported by the 475 viral respiratory disease monitoring units (USMER) throughout the country in the entire health sector (IMSS, ISSSTE, SEDENA, SEMAR, ETC). The data is presented as preliminary, and subject to validation by the Ministry of Health through the General Directorate of Epidemiology.
Source: Morocco Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of cases tested.
Latest estimate: 0.69 per thousand people; 25,443 in total (as of 25 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Morocco Ministry of Health provides daily updates of the total number of confirmed cases and the number of cases dismissed following a negative test result. We construct a time series of the cumulative number of cases tested to date using the data stored in this unofficial GitHub repository.
The cumulative number of cases tested to date includes positive and negative test results, while excluding pending results. We have cross-checked a sample of the figures reported in the unofficial source against data reported on the Ministry of Health website.
The earliest reported figure is from March 2nd 2020, at which point 29 cases had been tested. It is unclear whether March 2nd was the first date on which tests were conducted.
Source: Myanmar Ministry of Health and Sports
Short description: The number of samples tested.
Latest estimate: 0.12 per thousand people; 6,678 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Myanmar Ministry of Health and Sports provides a daily snapshot of the total number of specimens tested to date. These figures include positive and negative test results, but exclude pending results.
The earliest reported figure that we have been able to find on the ministry website is from April 3rd 2020, at which point 1183 specimens had been tested.
Source: Ministry of Health and Population
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 0.33 per thousand people; 9,931 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Ministry of Health and Population publishes daily reports on COVID-19, including a table with the number of people tested in each lab. It also differentiates between positive tests, negative tests, and tests pending, allowing to remove pending tests from the total.
We collect the data directly from this GitHub repository.
According to the reports, including the National Public Health Laboratory in Teku, the COVID-19 lab test through PCR is available in 13 institutions across the country with a minimum of one lab in each province.
Source: Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 11.33 per thousand people; 194,617 in total (as of 23 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Dutch National Institute for Public Health and the Environment releases ‘virological daily reports’. Rather than providing a full time series, each release provides daily test figures for a handful of the most recent days and then shows the cumulative total prior to that. It appears that figures are retrospectively updated, because the chain of daily figures from previous releases does not perfectly agree with the cumulative total reported in subsequent releases (though the discrepancies are relatively small).
Available to us are those reports retrievable through Web Archive. The earliest is from 26 March. A report for everyday since then could not be retreived. We construct our series taking the cumulative total as reported in the most recent report, and adding the daily figures available in the most recent report. The daily tesing figures we provide are calculated based on the change in the this cumulative figure we contruct. As such they may disagree slightly with the figures published in earlier releases.
The source reports the number of labs reporting in a given daily or cumulative figure. These have varied over the course of the reports, and this will affect the consistency of the time series we present.
The earliest figure we have is a cumulative total (reported on the 26 March) for the 14 March. The release states that ‘all laboratories in the Netherlands that perform diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2 have been asked from 9 March report these data daily.’ The figure given notes that 24 labs were counted in this cumulative figure. More recent releases count around 35 labs in the cumulative totals provided. But there appear to be reporting lags – the number of labs reporting for the latest one or two days are a good deal lower than for previous days.
Source: New Zealand Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 25.63 per thousand people; 123,920 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The New Zealand Ministry of Health produce daily update reports of confirmed cases, deaths and tests. This information includes demographic information of confirmed cases.
Recent releases refer to ‘total tested to date’. This is suggestive that the figures relate to the number of people tested. However earlier releases suggest the figures refer the number of tests (variously labelled as ’lab tests to date’, the ‘number of tests processed to date’, ‘completed tests’).
We assume that the figures provided refer to the same units over time, but we are uncertain whether the units are the number of tests performed or the number of people tested.
Unfortunately, despite publishing daily reports and media releases, not all reports include the latest testing figures. This means we cannot construct a complete daily time-series with available data.
These reports are clear that test figures are cumulative from 9th March.
Source: Nigeria Centre for Disease Control
Short description: The number of samples tested.
Latest estimate: 0.05 per thousand people; 10,918 in total (as of 25 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Nigeria Centre for Disease Control, on the homepage of the website dedicated to COVID-19, publishes a number of samples tested.
This table often displays figures in a format such as “> 7153”. When this is the case, we have taken the raw number (in our example 7153) as the cumulative total for that day.
No information is given on the geographical scope and number of labs included. It is also unclear whether the reported figures include tests for which the results are pending.
Source: Norwegian Institute of Public Health
Short description: The number of people tested, not including testing in private health services.
Latest estimate: 30.15 per thousand people; 164,316 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Norwegian Institute of Public Health produce daily update reports of confirmed cases, deaths and test results. This information includes demographic information of confirmed cases.
These daily reports state the cumulative number of people who have been tested – including the number and share who tested positive. We can use these daily updates to construct a full time-series. Note that the source states that “Changes in test criteria may… have resulted in slightly fewer tests tested per day. Data for the last few days is incomplete and will be updated.” They also note that “The figure contains only numbers from laboratories that have reports that include the sampling date. “[via Google Translate].
In addition to the aggregate number of people tested, the source provides a regional breakdown, in which it is noted that tests in ‘private labs that analyze tests across the country’ are excluded. The sum of this breakdown is lower than the aggregate figure provided. We take this as an indication that the main aggregate figure we report includes all private testing.
Daily reports with figures on testing are only available dating back to 16th March. We therefore do not know the first date of testing, only that as of 16th March, 18062 people had been tested.
The total number of people quoted to have been tested in each daily report refers to those tested up until 3pm (local time) of the previous day.
Source: Government of Pakistan
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 0.72 per thousand people; 150,756 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The government of Pakistan publishes a dashboard showing up-to-date national data.
The figures sometimes shows important 1-day increases due to the inclusion of more labs.
Source: Ministry of Health
Short description: Units are unclear, and could refer to the number of tests performed, or people tested.
Latest estimate: 6.21 per thousand people; 26,642 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Panama Ministry of Health in collaboration with the Gorgas Memorial Institute for Health Studies reports the cumulative number of tests performed to date in this dashboard. The reported figures include the total number of positive, negative, and “positive control” test results to date.
It is unclear whether the total number of tests performed (“pruebas realizadas”) refers to the number of people tested or the number of samples tested. The number of reported positive test results is equal to the number of confirmed cases of COVID-19, which suggests that the number of tests performed is equivalent to the number of people tested. However, because the data source does not provide a clear definition, we record the units as “unclear”.
Unfortunately, the Ministry of Health’s official dashboard does not provide a time series of the number of tests performed each day since testing began. Instead, the dashboard only displays a daily snapshot of the total number of tests performed to date. Since we did not begin to monitor this dashboard until April 14th 2020, we construct a time series dating back to March 9th 2020 using data provided in this unofficial Github repository, which we have cross-referenced against data in the official Ministry of Health dashboard for a sample of dates.
Source: Paraguay Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare
Short description: The number of samples tested.
Latest estimate: 1.08 per thousand people; 7,615 in total (as of 25 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Paraguay Ministry of Public Health and Social Welfare provides press releases of the daily number of samples tested, alongside the number of these samples that tested positive. It is unclear whether these figures include samples for which the results are still pending.
We construct a time series of the daily number of samples tested using the data stored in this unofficial Github repository. We have cross-checked a sample of the figures reported in this unofficial source against the data reported in official press releases.
It is possible that the figures are equivalent to the number of people tested, since the number of positive samples reported tend to be equal to the daily number of confirmed cases that the ministry reports. However, since the ministry uses the language “samples taken” (“muestras tomadas”) in its press releases, we interpret the units as “sample tested” rather than “people tested”.
The reported figures are cumulative from March 7th 2020, when the first case in Paraguay was confirmed.
Source: Ministry of Health, Government of Peru
Short description: Units are unclear, and could refer to the number of samples performed, or people tested.
Latest estimate: 6.99 per thousand people; 232,747 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Peruvian Ministry of Health provides daily press releases of the cumulative number of positive and negative test results to date, but it is unclear whether the numbers reported reflect “samples tested” or “people tested”. Some press releases report testing data using the language “…samples have been processed for ___ people…” (e.g. “Al 08 de abril de 2020 se han procesado muestras para 39 599 personas”), while other press releases report testing data using the language “…___ samples have been processed…” (e.g. “Al 18 de marzo de 2020 se han procesado 3 075 muestras”).
The reference date for the cumulative number of tests is not mentioned in the press releases. The earliest press release we are able to find is for March 4th, 2020, which reported 107 cumulative test results since an unmentioned date.
The sudden acceleration from 8 April 2020 onwards seems to be related to the addition of serology tests (“Pruebas serológicas rápidas”).
Source: Department of Health
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 0.69 per thousand people; 75,902 in total (as of 25 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Ministry of Health (MOH) provides a daily snapshot of testing capacity detailing the total number of individuals tested and the total number of tests conducted.
The total number of individuals tested is the sum of positive, negative, equivocal, and invalid individuals. No definitions of equivocal and invalid individual tests are given, hence our figures only report the sum of individuals who have tested positive or negative.
The source provides a breakdown of both i) the number of individuals tested and ii) the total tests conducted, by laboratory. We are not aware of any aggregation issues.
The DOH used to report the number of cases tested in a previous dashboard, but stopped on 4th April. This previous breakdown of the test results and COVID-19 dashboard have both been removed. We became aware of this new tracker on the 13th April with data ‘as of April 11 2020, 12am’. No previous snapshots of the dashboard are available using web archive, therefore the series starts from the 11th April – the earliest date from which we have access to the data.
Source: Ministry of Health of the Republic of Poland
Short description: The number of samples tested.
Latest estimate: 7.35 per thousand people; 278,994 in total (as of 25 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Polish Ministry of Health (@MZ_GOV_PL) tweets daily reports of the cumulative number of samples tested to date. These figures reflect the total number of positive and negative test results, excluding pending results. The figures reported in these tweets have been aggregated by an unofficial source, which we use as our primary source of data. We have cross-checked a sample of the figures reported in this unofficial source against the original tweets.
It is possible that the figures tweeted by the Ministry of Health are equivalent to the number of people tested, since the number of positive samples reported tend to be equal to the number of infected persons that the ministry reports in other tweets in the same day. However, since the ministry uses the language “number of samples tested” (“liczba przebadanych próbek”) in its tweets that report testing figures, we interpret the units as “sample tested” rather than “people tested”.
The first date for which we have found data is March 6th 2020, in which 855 cumulative samples were tested since an unknown date.
Source: Portugal Ministry of Health Daily Situation Report
Short description: The number of cases tested.
Latest estimate: 22.75 per thousand people; 232,480 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Portugal Ministry of Health (MOH) provides daily updates of the number of confirmed cases, unconfirmed cases, and those awaiting laboratory results. Given pending results are reported separately from total unconfirmed cases, this suggests ‘total unconfirmed cases’ refers to those with a negative test result and ‘total confirmed cases’ to those with a positive test result. Hence, we sum confirmed plus unconfirmed cases to get an estimate of the total number of cases tested. We used Google translate while compiling this data, so it may affect our interpretation of the data.
The earliest report of the number of confirmed cases dates back to March 3rd, using the MOH’s daily updates to reconstruct this time series.
The cases tested in the situation reports refer to data up until the previous day (i.e. the situation report for 05/04 has data up until 04/04). The date we use matches the period of data coverage, and not the situation report release date.
Source: Ministry of Internal Affairs
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 7.04 per thousand people; 136,518 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Data is collected and made available on Github. It includes a cumulative total of tests performed. No information is given on the geographical scope and number of labs included.
The main data source is the press office of the Ministry of Internal Affairs, which provides a daily report on most metrics. Data points are also sourced from the Romanian Ministry of Health and the Romanian National Institute of Public Health and occasionally from news outlets.
Source: Government of the Russian Federation
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 21 per thousand people; 3,019,434 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
A dedicated website publishes a daily report giving the cumulative total of tests performed in Russia. No information is given on the geographical scope and number of labs included.
We didn’t include cumulative totals reported on 30th March and 31st March, as they seemed inconsistent with numbers given on 29th March and 1st April.
Our figures for the cumulative number of tests performed refer to tests performed up until the previous day. E.g. total tests for 17/04 daily report refer to test data up until 16/04.
Source: Rwanda Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of samples tested.
Latest estimate: 1.5 per thousand people; 19,581 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Rwanda Ministry of Health (@RwandaHealth) tweets press releases in English, French, and Kinyarwanda that report the number of samples tested each day. Press releases prior to April 7th 2020 did not report the number of samples tested. For this reason, the time series that we construct represents the cumulative number of samples tested since April 7th. We do not know how many samples were tested prior to this date.
It is unclear whether the reported figures include tests for which the results are pending.
Prior to April 17th 2020, the press releases reported testing figures using the language “samples tested”. From April 17th onwards, the press releases have used the more ambiguous language “tests today”. We assume that “tests today” still refers to the number of samples tested.
Source: Ministry for Health and Social Action
Short description: The figures are labelled as the number of ‘tests performed’. Note that from other countries, we see that such a label can be consistent with figures relating to the number of individuals tested.
Latest estimate: 0.49 per thousand people; 8,358 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Senegalese Ministry for Health and Social Action publish daily press releases which detail the number of tests performed, and the number of positive confirmed cases. It is not totally clear whether the number of tests performed is equivalent to the number of people tested.
These daily press releases report the number of tests performed each day, dating back to 17th March. Although daily press releases date further back than this, they do not detail the number of tests performed, only the number of confirmed cases. Our time-series data therefore only exists from 17th March onwards.
Source: Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 7.39 per thousand people; 64,303 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Reports are published daily by the Serbian Ministry of Health. The data is collected and aggregated by volunteers and published on Github. All labs in Serbia are included.
Source #1: Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 13.93 per thousand people; 82,644 in total (as of 20 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Singapore’s Ministry of Health has started reporting testing numbers since 10 April 2020. The dashboard gives a cumulative total of swabs tested, and unique persons tested.
No other information is given on how the data was collected and aggregated, and whether coverage was complete.
Source #2: Ministry of Health
Short description: The number of swabs tested.
Latest estimate: 20.52 per thousand people; 121,774 in total (as of 20 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Singapore’s Ministry of Health has started reporting testing numbers since 10 April 2020. The dashboard gives a cumulative total of swabs tested, and unique persons tested.
No other information is given on how the data was collected and aggregated, and whether coverage was complete.
Source: National Center of Health Information and the Office of the Government of the Slovak Republic
Short description: The number of analysed samples.
Latest estimate: 13.59 per thousand people; 74,099 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
Slovakia’s National Center of Health Information updates its coronavirus dashboard fairly frequently with figures of the total number of negative and positive samples tested.
Using web archives, we construct a daily time series of total samples by looking at earlier snapshots of the website. These archives begin from the 15th March. We are unable to determine when testing began, only that on the 15th March a total of 1545 tests had been conducted. From earlier versions of the website, we can determine the total number of tests is the sum of those who tested positive or negative.
We have found the total number of negative and positive samples is identical for the 26/03 and 27/03. This is likely an error. From the 29/03 – 01/04 and 05/04 – 07/04 there are no snapshots available on the number of samples analysed.
From the 14th April, we became aware of a short term dashboard by the National Centre of Health and Information providing figures for the negative and positive samples tested over the last 6 days. The data in the short run dashboard matches the data provided by Slovakia’s National Center of Health Information updates. We have used this source to supplement testing data for the 10th April where web archives were not available.
Google translate was used while compiling this data so this may affect our interpretation of the data.
Source: National Institute of Public Health
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 24.32 per thousand people; 50,644 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The volunteer-led Sledilnik.org project makes time series available in many different formats, including cumulative tests performed in the country. A test can sometimes be performed multiple times on same person.
All testing labs are included; pending tests are not included. As of 12th April, tests in Slovenia are focused on healthcare workers, retirement home workers & inhabitants, and seriously-ill individuals.
Source: National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD)
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 2.87 per thousand people; 168,643 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The South African National Institute for Communicable Diseases (NICD) publishes daily updates and graphics on the number of confirmed cases, deaths and tests conducted nationally and by province. This is published consistently on its offical Twitter account.
It reports the number of ‘tests conducted’. It also reports the number of positive cases, and sometimes the number of ‘negative cases’. This is suggestive that ‘tests conducted’ refers to the number of people tested, but this was unclear from the available documentation up until 18th April. The official twitter account for the Department for Health reports repeat tests for COVID-19 are not counted and that the number ‘tests conducted’ refers to people tested.
The NICD began publishing these daily updates on 11th March, allowing us to develop a time-series from this date forward. We do not know the first date of testing, only that as of 11th March, 645 tests had been conducted. No update was published for the 7th April.
Source: South Korea CDC
Short description: The number of cases tested.
Latest estimate: 11.68 per thousand people; 601,660 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
KCDC have provided daily updates in English since 21 January. The figures they provide relate to ‘cases’, where this signifies an individual considered eligible for testing due to their symptoms, travel history or contact history.
Currently the figures shown below include those cases pending test results (currently roughly 15,000 cases). When we next update we will switch to figures that exclude this category.
The daily updates show the change each day and the current totals. These form a consistent chain all the way back to 21 January. We are not aware of any significant issues affecting comparisons over time.
Source: Ministerio de Sanidad, Consumo y Bienestar Social
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 22.29 per thousand people; 1,035,522 in total (as of 23 April 2020).
Detailed description:
No official data covering the whole of Spain is currently being regularly published.
We include two estimates. The first comes from a Ministry of Health press release, quoting Salvador Illa, Minister of Health: “From the beginning of the crisis and until April 13, the total number of PCR carried out in Spain is 930,230.”
The second is another Ministry of Health press release released on 27 April and relating to testing conducted up to 23 April. It provides a regional breakdown, with a total for Spain of 1,035,522 PCR tests. The same release provides a figure of 310,038 antibody tests conducted nationwide. These are different to the PCR tests, and are not included in the number we provide.
There are no other details about the figures are included in the press release.
CIVIO—a non-profit investigative data journalism organisation—are collating information on tests performed within each ‘autonomous community’ (region), as released through official channels (communication offices, web pages, press releases and social networks of the different regions). However, we do not report these figures because their data are not complete: For some autonomous communities, figures are available only irregular intervals; some are yet to report any numbers at all.
It is not entirely clear whether the figures for each region reflect the situation as of 23 April. Comparing the regional breakdowns provided in the Ministry of Health release to those collected from official sources by CIVIO suggests that the figure of 203,892 provided for Madrid in the Ministry of Health update –ostensibly dating to the 23 April – may date back to 14 April.
Source: Public Health Agency
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 9.38 per thousand people; 94,900 in total (as of 19 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The weekly report gives the cumulative total of individuals analyzed since the diagnostics were set up in Sweden.
The report published on 15 April states up to week 15 (ending 12 April)
– A total of 74,600 individuals have been analyzed.
– During week 15, 19,900 individuals were analyzed.
– During week 14, 17,700 individuals were analyzed.
– During week 13, 12,300 individuals were analyzed.
– During week 12, 10,300 individuals were analyzed.
– During week 11, 9,000 individuals’ samples were.
– During week 10, 4,300 individuals were analyzed.
By subtracting each weekly change from the cumulative total, we can retrospectively work out the cumulative totals by the end of each week:
– By 12 April: 74,600 total people tested;
– By 5 April: 74600 – 19900 = 54700 people tested;
– By 29 March: 54700 – 17700 = 37000 people tested;
– By 22 March: 37000 – 12300 = 24700 people tested;
– By 15 March: 24700 – 10300 = 14400 people tested;
– By 8 March: 14400 – 9000 = 5400 people tested;
– By 1 March: 5400 – 4300 = 1100 people tested.
Figures are often rounded off to the nearest hundred, indicating that they might not be extremely precise. The report does not indicate whether pending tests are included in the counts.
Source: Federal Office of Public Health
Short description: The figures are labelled as the ‘number of tests carried out’ (‘durchgeführten Tests’). Note that from other countries, we see that such a label can be consistent with figures relating to the number of individuals tested.
Latest estimate: 29.17 per thousand people; 252,900 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
In a daily report on the epidemiological situation in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein, the Federal Office of Public Health publishes an up-to-date cumulative total of tests carried out across the country, since the first laboratory-confirmed case recorded on February 24.
The report available on the website only shows the latest figure. For previous values:
– We used archive.org for days where the PDF file was archived;
– Gaps were filled for 3 days based on data sent to us on Twitter.
Figures are often rounded off to the nearest thousand, indicating that they might not be extremely precise. The report does not indicate whether pending tests are included in the counts.
Source: Taiwan Centers for Disease Control (CDC)
Short description: The figures are labelled in the source only as ‘tested’. It is unclear whether this relates to the number of individuals tested, or the number of samples tested.
Latest estimate: 2.51 per thousand people; 59,840 in total (as of 24 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Taiwanese Centers for Disease Control (CDC) host a dashboard in which they publish the total ‘tested’ to date, and ‘new from yesterday’. It is not clear whether this represents the total number of tests performed, or the number of people tested. The number ‘tested’ is greater than the sum of confirmed cases and ‘excluded’ (i.e. negative) test results. This would suggest it does not equal the total number of people tested, or if it does, pending results without a reported outcome are also included.
Although the CDC only show the last day’s figures on this dashboard, we can construct a time-series by looking at previous versions on web archive. Where possible we have tried to take the total test counts at the same time every day (those published at 00:30h). Unfortunately this time of publishing from CDC was not always completely consistent. This may lead to small discrepancies between ‘total tested’ and ‘new from ‘yesterday’ figures. Wherever possible we took the total test count as of 00:30 as the prefered figure; where a day of data was missing we used the ‘new from yesterday’ figure to calculate the total for the previous day. If there are small discrepancies with other sources, this timing issue is likely to be the cause. In any case it is likely to be minor.
The date from which the total test figures date back to is not known; the CDC dashboard is unavailable in web archives prior to 21st March.
Source: Thailand, Department of Disease Control
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 0.77 per thousand people; 53,425 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Thailand Department of Disease Control issues daily situation reports which detail the status of confirmed cases, deaths and people being assessed.
We provide the figures reported as ‘persons under investigation’ (PUI). PUI is the sum of confirmed cases, the number of people who tested negative, and the number of people for whom results are still pending. All three figures are reported individually from 3rd March until 31st March. From 1st April onwards, the number of people who tested negative and the number for whom results are still pending are no longer reported separately.
We have received communication from Thailand’s Ministry of Health (MOH) that individuals who did not meet PUI criteria can pay out of pocket to have their samples tested, referred to as the “non-PUI” group. This “non-PUI” group is large in the context of Thailand. Daily figures are currently being consolidated by the MOH. At the moment, this “non-PUI” group is not reflected in our current figures.
Source: Tunisian Ministry of Health
Short description: Figures are provided both in terms of the number of cases tested and the number of tests. It may be that in the case of Tunisia the distinction between the number of individuals tested and the number of tests performed is less significant, if few people are tested more than once.
Latest estimate: 1.75 per thousand people; 20,818 in total (as of 25 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Tunisian Ministry of Health dashboard provides daily figures of the total number of cases tested (‘Cas testés’). They also provide a time series for the number of tests per day (‘Nombre de tests journaliers’). The figures we provide relate to the latter.
The time series figures sum up to a number slightly higher than the cumulative figure provided for cases tested. We understand this to be equivalent to the number of individuals tested. It is unclear whether the difference between the numbers relates to a genuine distinction in the two figures between the number of indivudals tested and the number of tests performed, or if the differences are due instead to reporting delays or other unintended discrepancies.
It’s important to note that when figures exceed 1000, the Tunisian Ministry of Health report the number of tests per day to the nearest hundred (e.g. 1.6k).
The first date in the time series of daily tests is 10th March, for which 28 tests were reported.
Source: Turkish Ministry of Health
Short description: The source reports this as the ‘total number of tests’. However, based on the context, it is unclear whether this refers to the total number of tests conducted, or number of people who have been tested.
Latest estimate: 10.72 per thousand people; 898,742 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Turkish Ministry of Health now publishes a daily chart of Coronavirus confirmed cases, deaths, recoveries, total tests, and daily tests. What is unclear is whether ‘total tests’ here refers to the number of tests completed, or the number of people who have been tested.
These daily charts are published on the Turkish Ministry of Health’s website – previous versions can be found on Web Archive. This only extends back to 27th March. Prior to this date, we rely on figures reported by the Turkish Minister for Health at daily press conferences. In these reports they detail the latest update of confirmed cases, deaths and tests conducted.
We are not aware of the date that testing began: only that as of 18th March – the first data point in our series – 10,018 tests had been conducted.
Source: Press Release from the Office of the Director General
Short description: The number of samples tested.
Latest estimate: 0.47 per thousand people; 22,318 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Office of the Director General publishes a daily press release detailing the cumulative number of samples tested to date, on the MOH official twitter account. The earliest press release that lists the cumulative total is 6th April. However, we cannot say with certainty when testing began and the precise date from which cumulative totals begin.
After the 14th April, press releases by the Office of the Director General publishes the daily number of samples tested. We sum the cumulative total number of samples tested for the previous day with the daily number of samples tested today. For example, the total number of samples tested on the 15th April is equal to the cumulative total up until the 14th April plus the number of samples tested on the 15th April. For the 18th April, we rely on the figure reported by the MOH official twitter account to calculate our cumulative totals.
We are aware of Uganda’s MOH information portal, however, it only lists the ‘cumulative # tested’ without specifying more precise units of measurement. Our cumulative totals for the number of samples tested from 19/04 matches the ‘cumulative # tested’ total in the Uganda information portal for 20/04. This suggests the ‘cumulative # tested’ refers to the samples tested up until the previous day.
Source #1: Public Health England/Department of Health and Social Care
Short description: The number of people tested.
Latest estimate: 8.07 per thousand people; 543,413 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
A time series is not yet released. The figures we provide relate to the daily updates provided for the cumulative total and daily number of people tested. It is not clear the exact date that the cumulative figures date back to.
We were informed on 26 April 2020 that the daily changes in cumulative total, which we previously calculated by subtracting one day’s running total from the next one, couldn’t in fact be calculated in this way, and were provided directly on the page instead. We thus readjusted our time series using Tom White’s archives on GitHub, and from 26 April 2020 onwards we collect both figures directly from the official page.
Source #2: Public Health England/Department of Health and Social Care
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 9.95 per thousand people; 669,850 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
A time series is not yet released. The figures we provide relate to the daily updates provided for the cumulative total and daily number of tests performed. It is not clear the exact date that the cumulative figures date back to.
We were informed on 26 April 2020 that the daily changes in cumulative total, which we previously calculated by subtracting one day’s running total from the next one, couldn’t in fact be calculated in this way, and were provided directly on the page instead. We thus readjusted our time series using Tom White’s archives on GitHub, and from 26 April 2020 onwards we collect both figures directly from the official page.
Source #1: COVID Tracking Project
Short description: The data are an aggregation of figures released by individual states. The Project aim to report on the number of people tested, including private labs, but not all states report their figures in this way.
Latest estimate: 16.42 per thousand people; 5,441,079 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
This is a collaborative project launched in order to fill some of the important gaps in the testing figures being collated by the CDC.
Testing data is gathered from individual states, as reported in state health department websites, data dashboards and press releases from officials.
States currently report testing figures in a range of different ways: some report the number of tests performed, others the number of people tested; some include private labs, others not; some report negative test results, others only positive test results; some include pending tests, others do not (below we show figures that exclude explicitly pending results).
Moreover, many states do not explicitly provide details about these important factors needed to interpret the data they provide.
There are issues in comparing the figures over time. The totals given for early on in the outbreak do not include all states. One significant uncertainty is the extent to which the rapid rise in tests seen from the mid-March in part reflects states beginning to report private lab tests.
Overall the figures should be seen as providing a general indication of testing output, rather than a specific count of a given indicator. Given the very incomplete coverage and reporting delays of the CDC data, it provides a very important additional perspective.
The Project documents their work in lots of detail. See the link provided above for full details.
Source #2: US CDC
Short description: The number of specimens tested in public labs only.
Latest estimate: 1.25 per thousand people; 414,446 in total (as of 18 April 2020).
Detailed description:
In addition to CDCs labs, the figures include specimens tested at public health labs in 49 states, New York City, Puerto Rico, USAF, and 15 California Counties.
As such the figures do not include private lab tests, which are occurring in significant numbers.2
Daily figures are provided since 18 January. CDC suggest that figures within 7 days of the update “are incomplete because of the lag in time between when specimens are accessioned, testing is performed, and results are reported”. As such we only provide figures after this 7 day cut off.
The CDC documents very well what is and is not included in its published testing figures. See the source linked to above for more details.
Source: Ministry of Public Health
Short description: The number of tests performed.
Latest estimate: 4.88 per thousand people; 17,063 in total (as of 27 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Ministry of Public Health in Uruguay publishes daily reports providing the cumulative total of tests performed. We received confirmation that the figures refer to tests, and not people. The source notes that “there are people who have been tested more than once. This explains why the total number of positive tests does not coincide with that of people with positive tests.”
We previously reported testing data from a dashboard maintained by El Observador, but on 20 April 2020 we replaced the entire time series based on the reports from the Ministry of Health.
Source: Vietnamese Ministry of Health
Short description: The source reports this as the ‘number of samples tested’. However, based on the context, it is unclear whether this refers to the total number of tests conducted, or number of people who have been tested.
Latest estimate: 2.17 per thousand people; 212,965 in total (as of 26 April 2020).
Detailed description:
The Vietnamese Ministry of Health update its disease situation statistics page daily with the latest data on confirmed cases, deaths and samples tested.
It refers to its testing data as ‘samples tested’, and reports confirmed cases and negative samples separately; ‘sample tested’ generally matches the sum of confirmed cases and negative samples (though there are occasionally some small discrepancies – we report the sum of positive and negative in this case). This would suggest that ‘samples tested’ is equivalent to the number of people tested. However, it’s unclear whether ‘negative samples’ includes some instances of resampling for the same person. We therefore cannot say with certainty that these are equivalent.
Using web archives we can reconstruct a daily time-series of total samples by looking at previous versions of the updated website. These daily updates extend back to 2nd March. We cannot say with certainty when testing began, only that as of 2nd March 1753 samples had been tested.
Below is the list of countries for which we have attempted to collect data but could not find official sources.
Democratic Republic of Congo
Last checked: 16 April 2020
We have been unable to find any testing figures on the Ministry of Health website or other official sources.
Tanzania
Last checked: 16 April 2020
The Tanzania Ministry of Health press releases report the number of confirmed cases, but not the number of tests conducted. We have been unable to find official testing figures from any other official source.