Bacon's Rebellion

Democracy Thrives in Sunlight

Even Guam Leads Virginia in COVID-19 Testing

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by

James A. Bacon
in

Lowest ranked states and possessions for COVID-19 tests per million population.

by James C. Sherlock

Virginia trails almost all U.S. states and possessions in the percentage of the population tested for the COVID-19 virus — even as Governor Ralph Northam has made extensive testing a prerequisite for ending the shutdown. Guam has performed more tests per capita than Virginia. Among the 50 states, Virginia exceeds only Kansas by a slim margin.

The accompanying table draws from The COVID Tracking website, which in turn pulled data from Virginia Department of Health website, effective April 22, 2020. I used state population figures from latest Census Bureau estimates for July 1, 2019.

States with highest ratio of COVID-19 tests per million population.

Compare the data released by the emergency operations center of the government of Guam today with information released by Virginia. Notice that the Guam Department of Public Health and Social Services (DPHSS), in collaboration with the Government of Guam and federal and private partners, will launch a COVID-19 Pilot Project Drive-Through/Walk-In Testing of COVID-19 for residents who live in Sagan Linhanyan and Lower Astumbo, Dededo. The drive-through/walk-in testing will take place from 9 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. on Saturday, April 25 at the Astumbo Gym in Dededo.

Testing is limited and is free and open to residents of Sagan Linhanyan (South of the Naval Base) and Lower Astumbo (Central mountains) who meet the following criteria:

• Individuals with COVID-19 symptoms
• Multi-generational families in a household (parents, grandparents, great-grandparents, adult children, their children) with COVID-19 symptoms

Please also notice that Guam has the Abbott ID NOW COVID-19 tests and has handled them properly, unlike some states. You haven’t missed similar announcements from Virginia because there aren’t any.

After Saturday Guam will likely dwarf Virginia in tests/million The Commonwealth of Virginia is pitifully behind.

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8 responses to “Even Guam Leads Virginia in COVID-19 Testing”

  1. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    How many of those tests in Guam are sailors from the TR?

    Remember, the tested all 5,000.

    1. sherlockj Avatar
      sherlockj

      None. DoD keeps its own numbers. These numbers are for Guamanians. Note the total tests in Guam are 1220.

  2. sbostian Avatar
    sbostian

    The governor is creating his own excuses for prolonging the house arrest he has imposed on the Commonwealth. He is having the time of his life. Why would he want to foster conditions for returning to normal?

  3. Nancy_Naive Avatar
    Nancy_Naive

    “tested by the Department of Public Health and Social Services (DPHSS), probable cases of COVID-19, confirmed positive cases tested by the Naval Health Research Center (NHRC) in San Diego, U.S. Naval Hospital (USNH) Guam, Guam Memorial Hospital Authority (GMHA), and Diagnostic Laboratory Services (DLS).”

    Wow, talk about federal cooperation….

    How many Virginia tests were confirmed by Portsmouth Naval?

    1. sherlockj Avatar
      sherlockj

      Nancy, we are next to last among the states.

  4. S. E. Warwick Avatar
    S. E. Warwick

    Do we know what it is we’re testing for yet? Are we looking for presence of the virus or antibodies?

    1. LarrytheG Avatar
      LarrytheG

      that’s my question. What states are doing contact testing and if they’re not doing contact testing then what kind of testing are they doing and how does that help mitigate the pandemic?

      testing for testing sake doesn’t do much especially if it’s just individuals making sure they are not infected.

      testing medical workers and EMS, front-line folks is mandatory but that would be a much smaller number than we see in some states.

      Cuomo wants to start contact testing in NY. He says it will take an “army” people to do the contact testing.but he says he does not have enough testing materials to do it.

      I’d prefer to hear from Northam what the plan is – yes. but testing for testing sake is not a plan.

  5. sherlockj Avatar
    sherlockj

    We are next to last among the states.

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