US Confirmed Cases Skyrocket as Testing Ramps Up

It appears the spread of the global pandemic was faster in the U.S. than the rest of the world, but that rapid increase was a result of U.S. coronavirus testing ramping up.

The U.S. had conducted 103,945 coronavirus tests by Thursday and had 13,677 confirmed cases, according to Johns Hopkins University, which represented a 76% increase in a 24-hour period, Forbes magazine reported.

"In the past week, the number of tests conducted in the United States has increased, however, the data for the past couple days has not been compiled yet; this could skew the numbers to look like coronavirus is growing faster, yet we are simply testing more," Forbes' Trevor Nace reported Friday from Thursday's numbers.

"Ultimately, it's impossible to capture the true number of coronavirus cases at any given point. The numbers show the minimum number of COVID-19 cases and are highly dependent on two factors: population and rate of testing."

The numbers through Saturday morning, according to Worldometer, which tallies the virus data using Johns Hopkins and media reports, show the U.S. has 19,777 confirmed cases.

To spread some cold water on the Forbes report and general hysteria, among the top 15 most-inflicted countries, only China and the United Kingdom have a lower infection rate per capita, according to Worldometer figures.

Just 56 in China per 1 million of the population have a confirmed coronavirus case. It is 59 in 1 million in U.K., and 60 in 1 million people in the U.S. That is an infection-rate of 0.006%, which follows the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention mantra: the risk to most Americans remains "very low."

But the ramping up of testing has increased the U.S. infection rates. The U.S. had been among the lowest in the world earlier this week. But, also – if you are more concerned about the fatal nature of the disease, as many are – more cases are confirmed only through testing. The U.S. confirmed-case death rate has led to a decline from around 1.8% earlier in the week to about 1.4%.

As of Saturday morning, per Worldometer, the U.S. has reported 276 deaths among its 19,777 confirmed cases. That is a confirmed-case death rate of 1.39%.

President Donald Trump was publicly derided for dismissing the World Health Organization's estimate of the coronavirus fatality rate being 3.4% and suggesting it was closer to 1%.

The current global pandemic confirmed case total is 286,667 with 11,888 deaths for a confirmed-case death rate of 4.1%.

Here are the top 10 worse-inflicted countries in the world, with their corresponding confirmed cases, deaths, population infliction per capita, and confirmed-case death rate:

Top 10 Most-Inflicted Countries (Worldometer)

Worldometer chart from 10 a.m. ET 3/21/2020