Michigan testing enough to control COVID, but not to contain it

There are many ways to measure the effectiveness of states’ efforts to contain the spread of COVID-19. One of those is by how much testing the state is conducting.

An analysis by the Harvard Global Health Institute found that Michigan is conducting enough testing to mitigate the virus, but not enough to suppress it.

According to reporting by NPR, Michigan is currently conducting almost 16,000 tests per day – enough to mitigate the virus.

That’s pretty good, especially considering the 32 other states that aren’t testing at that level.

But it’s not enough to actually reduce the amount of infections in the state. That would take nearly 56,000 tests per day – more than three times as much as Michigan is doing right now.

“I do think it’s possible,” said Ashish Jha, who runs the Harvard Global Health Institute. “It’s not going to be easy. But it requires leadership and it requires a commitment from our country that says, ‘We actually want to open up our country safely and we want to get our lives back.'”

You can read and hear the full story at NPR.