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COVID-19 Testing Lags as Cases Increase Across the United States

Coronavirus testing rates have fallen in several states where cases are increasing, an NBC News analysis of COVID-19 testing data has found

A phlebotomist wearing protective gloves draws blood from a patient for a COVID-19 antibody test at a GUARDaHEART Foundation testing site in Los Angeles, Aug. 5, 2020.
Patrick T. Fallon/Bloomberg via Getty Images (File)

Coronavirus testing rates have fallen in several states where cases are increasing, an NBC News analysis of testing data has found.

As of Monday afternoon, 8.2 million people have contracted COVID-19 in the U.S., according to NBC News numbers. More than 733,000 of those cases have been confirmed in the last two weeks.

The NBC News analysis of COVID Tracking Project data found six states where testing rates have fallen in the past two weeks, even as cases have risen.

As many as 30 states and territories have seen COVID-19 cases increase more than 25 percent in the last two weeks, according to an NBC News count of coronavirus cases in the country. But only 21 states saw increases in testing at or above that level during the same period.

Without widespread testing, cities and states don’t have the ability to track who has the virus and who is at risk of getting it, experts say.

Read the full story at NBCNews.com.

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