Originally Posted by
sdsearch
The other problem with percentage of positive tests is that it would presumably go down if way more people with no symptoms and no suspected recent exposure started getting tested. So, yes, if it goes up it's a bad sign, but if it goes down, it's hard to say what it means.
That's why deaths / hospitalizations and ICU admissions are a better metric. It's too bad they lag true cases by weeks.
Positive testing rate is a good metric, but values in the 5% or less seems to be in the "good" range to catch most of the symptomatic folks?