Read on Twitter
Numbers of confirmed coronavirus case mean very little without context on how many tests are taking place in a given country. In Latin America the scale of testing varies widely b/c of wealth, virus spread, lab capacity etc. But, here’s how things are looking so far (1)
Brazil has a large number of confirmed coronavirus cases (43,079) but has done only about 89,000 tests for a population of over 210 million. 93,000 samples are pending.
Despite that backlog, some of the country’s labs are idle, my colleague @Reporter_AMano wrote last week: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-brazil-testing/as-brazils-covid-19-testing-lags-available-labs-go-unused-idUSKCN21X36V
Peru has 17,000 cases, but a fairly impressive testing number (over 155,000) for a population of about 33 million. The rapid increase in cases there is putting its health system under strain though, writes @maquinor: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-peru-hospitals/masks-reused-and-bodies-mount-as-peru-strains-under-coronavirus-idUSKCN2241C2
Ecuador - which has only 17.4 million people - has been slammed by coronavirus. It’s got 10,850 cases and has conducted 34,840 tests, with others are waiting to be processed. My colleague @aleja1812 is covering the situation there.
Chile has about the same population (19 million) and the same number of confirmed cases (10,832) as Ecuador, but has done four times as many tests (122,357).
Colombia, which has 50 million people, has more than 4,000 cases and has conducted 68,428 tests. That’s more than double testing numbers of 39,228 in Argentina, which has about the same population (45 million) and slightly fewer cases (3,144 cases).
Cuba’s number of tests speaks well for the reach of its medical system – it has 11.3 million people and just 1,189 cases but has processed 32,276 tests. People there are scrambling for scare food supplies, writes @msfcuba1: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-cuba-economy-featu/cubans-cast-aside-coronavirus-fears-to-search-for-scarcer-food-idUSKCN21Q2C6
Bolivia (pop. 11.6 million) is an interesting comparison for Cuba – it has only 609 cases, but it’s also only done about 4,000 tests.
Two wild cards: In Mexico, government officials estimate the country likely has about 55,000 cases, but as of Apr. 18 they had only conducted about 49,000 tests. Mexico (pop. 129 million) is in Phase 3 of the epidemic, writes Raul Cortes Fernandez: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-mexico-phasethree/mexico-enters-most-serious-phase-3-spread-of-coronavirus-epidemic-idUSKCN2231SS
Venezuela claims one of the world’s lowest incidences of coronavirus - just over 200 cases among 29 million people. It says it’s conducted 270,000 tests, though there are reasons to doubt official figures, report @AABerwick and @VivianSequera: https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-venezuela-tests-in/in-run-down-caracas-institute-venezuelas-coronavirus-testing-falters-idUSKBN21Z1BR
Peru, Colombia, Chile + Cuba seem to be doing more testing relative to population and might have more accurate data about how much the virus has actually spread. Special thanks to @CassLGarrison, @Simmoa, @aleja1812, @reuterssarah, @bzbrad and @fjdnl for indulging me.
