We undoubtedly have far more cases of COVID-19 in the US than testing has revealed, but testing is still an important way to begin getting a handle on how far this outbreak has spread. An online tool called the Covid Tracking Project has collected each state’s testing data if you’d like to keep tabs on how that’s going.
The tracker covers all the states plus DC, as well as US territories like Puerto Rico and American Samoa.
This tracker is a handy way to find your state’s data, but it also comes with plenty of caveats. States may be using different guidelines to decide who to test, for example, and they don’t all report results in the same way. Each state’s data comes with a note on what it means, as you can see in the screenshot above.
The tracker also keeps a record of historical data. Screenshots of each state’s numbers are taken several times a day (here’s New York’s), so you can check back on how the numbers have changed over time. Some states break up the results by county or provide maps; others just give a few numbers or a “no cases yet” message.
“The information is patchy and inconsistent, so we’re being transparent about what we find and how we handle it,” the tracker’s creators write. In the chaos of the current situation, that’s probably the best anyone can do.
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