As more people are tested and re-tested for the virus, more results will come back positive, with the current number of confirmed cases exceeding 2 million in the U.S. But if we know anything, it is that increases in the number of confirmed cases do not accurately convey how
quickly and widely the virus is spreading. So, this presents a problem with the daily updates. To say that a particular state or city is seeing a “spike” in cases is to say that recently they have had an uptick in positive test results. That could be due to more testing and more ways of testing. So, Rather than focus on test results, i.e. “cases,” it would make more sense to focus on the obvious measure, that would be the number of deaths.