Just 18 days after the US marked 150,000 lives lost from the novel coronavirus COVID-19, the death toll surpassed 170,000.<br />Johns Hopkins University data says more than 5.4 million people have been infected and 170,052 have died.<br />Worryingly, COVID-19 is still spreading rampantly, but there is less testing available. At the same time, the testing that is available is returning high positivity rates.<br />CNN reports the number of tests performed each day in the US dropped by an average of 68,000 compared to the daily rate in late July.<br />Fifteen states conducted fewer tests this past week compared to the previous week.<br />Yet test positivity rates -- the percentage of tests that are positive -- are still higher than the recommended 5% in more than 30 states.
