Data released Tuesday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention shows the number of coronavirus cases in different parts of the United States was sometimes 2 to 13 times higher than the reported rates in the areas.
“These data continue to show that the number of people who have been infected with the virus that causes COVID-19 far exceeds the number of reported cases,” Dr. Fiona Havers, the CDC researcher who headed up the study, said. “Many of these people likely had no symptoms or mild illness and may have had no idea that they were infected.”
The numbers, based on a study of antibody testing results, suggest a large population of people contracted the virus but did not experience symptoms or see a doctor.
An uptick in coronavirus cases has been reported across the country in recent weeks, while the daily death count has been consistently dropping. Questions and concerns have been raised about the way hospitals and government agencies have been coding deaths and reporting the infections.
An investigation in Florida showed that the number of positive tests at several hospitals is much lower than reported by the state’s health department. And in Texas, more than 3,000 coronavirus cases were recently removed from the list of probable coronavirus deaths.
Similarly, a state health official in Florida admitted that a man who died in a motorcycle accident was coded as a coronavirus death raising questions similar to those asked by coroners across the country, including in Colorado and Pennsylvania, who are unsure why some people are being counted as coronavirus deaths when that was not the actual cause of death.
