Coronavirus Update: Reported Tests Spike as California Clears Backlog

More than 830,000 cases of coronavirus have now been confirmed in the U.S., with the death toll surpassing 42,000. The pandemic continues to wreak havoc on the economy, with 4.4 million workers filing for unemployment Thursday, bringing the total number of jobless claims to more than 26 million.

The number of new cases per day has hovered around 27,000 since last week. Yesterday, 27,219 patients received COVID-19 diagnoses. The plateau in new cases reflects the fact that the U.S. is at the apparent peak of the current outbreak. However, the path forward remains perilous, as reopening the economy could spur a wave of new cases.

Just over 2,100 coronavirus patients died in the U.S. yesterday, down from 2,600 Tuesday. While the past two days have seen an increase in deaths nationally, New York, the hardest-hit state, reported declining numbers of new deaths.

Yesterday saw a huge spike in testing, primarily due to the clearing of California’s test backlog. Unlike most states, California has had long delays in processing test results. We’ll be watching the rate of testing this week as an indicator of how quickly states will be able to reopen their economies.