Originally Posted by
cmtlatitudes
The 16th was a Monday. That's still possibly "coming off the weekend" factor in terms of data sets in testing or reporting of testing, at least to me.
I don't pretend to know what it means. Or if it means anything. But the dips are so far clustered:
March 1 - March 2nd: Sunday - Monday
March 9 - 10: Monday - Tuesday
March 15-16: Sunday - Monday
March 21-22: Saturday - Sunday
If their testing capacity changes on certain days of the week, then they will need a full week to determine if the curve is flattening.
Just like a location where testing is still ramping up will delay knowing when the curve is flattening and suffer greater economic and social consequences prior to the realization that distancing measures are working.
When testing is not consistent, we can also look at hospitalized cases as a guide as long as the criteria for hospitalization is not changing on the fly as it is in Italy.