US, South Korea reported first coronavirus cases on the same day. How they compare now
The United States and South Korea each reported their first confirmed case of the coronavirus to the World Health Organization on Jan. 20.
Two months later, the U.S. has nearly 9,000 more confirmed cases than South Korea, according to Johns Hopkins University. And while cases in South Korea are on the decline, the number of cases in the U.S. is growing at a faster rate than any other country in the world as of March 19, according to Hopkins’ research.
The difference, health experts say, is in the response.
South Korea saw a spike in cases in late February, which peaked at 909 new cases on Feb. 29, according to a report from Business Insider Magazine. After that, South Korean officials immediately took action, testing nearly 300,000 people to date, which represents the highest testing rate in the world, according to Fortune Magazine.
The rapid-fire testing allowed South Korea to quickly isolate those who tested positive for the coronavirus, and identify who they’d had contact with, according to sciencemag.org.
By contrast, the U.S. has tested just over 135,000 people, according to the COVID Tracking Project, which has compiled state-level data. As a result, U.S. officials don’t have a complete picture of how many Americans are infected or where the cases are concentrated, according to Reuters.
In projections compiled for the American Hospital Association, as many as 96 million Americans could be infected in coming months, and 480,000 could die, according to Dr. James Lawler, an infectious disease expert at the University of Nebraska Medical Center, Reuters reports.
As of Friday, there were more 19,000 confirmed cases in the U.S. and almost 250 deaths. South Korea has more than 8,600 confirmed cases and 94 deaths.
South Korea has a population of about 39 million; the U.S. has over 320 million residents.
The U.S. government relies on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to provide testing kits for the coronavirus, while South Korea enlisted members of the private sector to develop the test, according to Reuters. The Food and Drug Administration could have exacerbated the issue by taking more than five weeks to approve tests developed outside the CDC, Reuters said.
President Donald Trump announced Friday that the administration would partner with private companies to produce more test kits and make them more widely available at hospitals and in stores.
