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On July 21, Trump stated that US has been leading in the world in number of coronavirus tests being conducted but the data available in the public domain says something else.

While boasting on its COVID-19 tests being conducted, he said that India ranks second in terms of number of tests conducted.

He said that India is the second country with 12 million tests.

However, his claims do not add to the real story. The figures available on public domain reveal a different story.

Take a look at the real numbers and where the two countries India and the US stand in terms of number of tests being conducted.

According to Statista, an International data provider, the country which has conducted highest number of tests in the world still remains CHINA.

China has conducted around 90.4 million tests as of July 20.

China is followed by the US with 48 million tests conducted till July 20.

Then comes Russia in the list with 25 million tests followed by India with 14 million COVID-19 tests so far.

Meanwhile, on July 21, US centre for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) reported that the US has crossed 50 million tests till now.

According to the public domain’s data as we see, US may rank second in the number of tests being conducted but definitely not number one as Donald Trump has claimed.

There are several factors one has to consider when calculating the data like population density and number of positive cases recorded in the management of COVID-19 crisis.

For a standard form of measurement to know he actual data related to every country in terms of confirmed cases, death toll and the number of tests being conducted, we advise everyone to follow the standard website, Our World In Data (OWID).

OWID’s data relies on the researchers from European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control and official authorities like Indian Council of Medical Research and CDC in the US.

According to OWID, so far US is lagging behind UAE, Denmark, Iceland and Russia in terms of total number of tests conducted per 1000 population.

UAE has conducted 458.4 tests per 1000, Denmark has done 226 per 1000 tests and USA is at 138 per 100.

India, however lags far behind with just 9.99 tests being conducted per 1000 people.

Even as per daily tests conducted, USA stands at 2.35 per 1000 people and India stands at only 0.23 per 1000.

According to the researchers, just taking account of number of tests is not the only measure to state the country as leading.

For accurate calculations, the number of cases, the tests conducted and percentage of positive results must be considered.

In a nut shell, while it is true that the US has ramped up the COVID-19 testing process, claiming that the US has outperformed would be false and do not support the actual data.

By Gayatri Yellayi