Sorry, I'm sure this question has been posted a lot.

Are major Covid dashboards, like WorldOMeters, showing a significant reduction in new cases because the virus is actually trending downward (at least in the present) or because it now takes two tests to be considered positive.

Not sure if the "two positive tests" thing was a rumor or confirmed, just curious.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Thanks,

I heard some states have changed from reporting the number of positive tests to the number of positive persons (i.e. only count a person once if they test positive multiple times.)

I doubt that is enough to explain a 60%+ drop over 4 weeks. Probably seasonality as a lot of countries are also experiencing huge drops right now.

Mountain_Ag said:

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Sorry, I'm sure this question has been posted a lot.

Are major Covid dashboards, like WorldOMeters, showing a significant reduction in new cases because the virus is actually trending downward (at least in the present) or because it now takes two tests to be considered positive.

Not sure if the "two positive tests" thing was a rumor or confirmed, just curious.

https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/country/us/

Thanks,

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The two positive tests was a WHO thing that they announced a week or two ago, and only for those that show no symptoms. Not sure who actually uses that criteria (e.g. states, worldOmeters, etc)

Gumby said:

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I heard some states have changed from reporting the number of positive tests to the number of positive persons (i.e. only count a person once if they test positive multiple times.)

I doubt that is enough to explain a 60%+ drop over 4 weeks. Probably seasonality as a lot of countries are also experiencing huge drops right now.

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These things only last 1-2 years so at some point they play themselves out. Reinfections have been very very rare, despite what posters say, studies are showing 6+ months of about 95% immunity so far. Someone posted the study here the other day. Predicted to be much longer immunity as time goes by. This was going to end with or without a vaccine.

So obviously numbers will drop drastically at some point.

Or did they change the sensitivity metric for defining a positive test? I.e. if they (the CDC) raised the sensitivity, it would be more definitive, but fewer people would test positive who would have tested positive before.