The proportion of Covid-19 laboratory tests that are coming back positive is at the lowest recorded point since the pandemic took hold in the U.S., a sign of progress as the country moves ahead with reopening.
Laboratories processed more than 677,000 laboratory-based Covid-19 tests a day on average during the week ended June 3, down from the peak of more than two million during the fall and winter, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Some 2% of Covid-19 tests are coming back positive, compared with more than 13% during the height of the winter surge, according to Johns Hopkins University, which compiles Covid-19 testing and case data in the U.S.
The percentage of tests that come back positive, known as the test-positivity rate, depends both on the level of disease and the amount of testing being done. The national positivity rate was highest early in the pandemic, when the limited amount of testing available focused on people with symptoms.
The proportion of tests coming back positive has been consistently falling since April this year and is now at the lowest point since March 2020, the furthest back the Johns Hopkins data are available.