Coronavirus

Covid test positivity triples in Brazil

Covid test positivity triples
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A survey by Abramed, an association of diagnostic medicine firms, points out that the percentage of Covid tests in private laboratories tripled over the past month. The data was published on Thursday. The percentage of positive coronavirus cases reached 29 percent in the week ending May 21 — from 10 percent in the week ending on April 23.

Milva Pagano, Abramed’s executive director, says the trend can be explained by the fact that people are only testing themselves after showing symptoms of coronavirus infection.

Brazil’s seven-day rolling average of new daily cases has risen from roughly 15,000, at the beginning of the month, to around 18,000 now. The average of new daily deaths has remained somewhat stable in May.

Experts warn, however, that the real number of Covid cases might be much larger than authorities believe because of a lack of data from self-testing kits. Last week, the Pan-American Health Organization (PAHO) warned that Latin America witnessed a sharp growth of Covid infections during the month of May.