Around 245,442 people in the United States have tested positive for the coronavirus and killed 6,099 people. However, health officials said that the number could be much higher.
There is a lack of testing for the virus and the slow pace at which the tests have become available in America accounts for the difference. Experts say that this failure to test everyone as fast as possible has led to more infections and stricter rules regarding social isolation, as local leaders and public health experts opt to isolate everyone and encourage them to take caution in order to stop the spread of the virus.
Late this week, more tests are becoming available and according to The Atlantic, more than 100,000 people have now been tested in America for the virus, and there will be more soon.
What will you be in for?
If you go for a coronavirus test, you will experience seconds of discomfort or anguish, depending on whom you ask. The coronavirus test requires a sample to be taken from the back of the throat, and it is done with a nasopharyngeal swab, which is a massive Q-tip. The swab is slowly inserted into the nose, twisted around to get samples and yanked out as soon as it is done. According to a doctor, it takes only ten seconds for a patient to complete the test if they are calm, but if they start to resist it will take longer to get a proper swab.
President Donald Trump is one of the people who got tested for coronavirus, and he was asked about his experience. He said that it was not something that he wants to do every day because there is nothing pleasant about it.
TikTok user shares coronavirus test experience
One TikTok user named @shelfboi said that she felt like she was being stabbed in the brain. She wrote a caption of a video showing her getting tested in her car. The health-care worker who administered the test says "It's awful. I'm sorry. I wish there was a better way to do it."
The 17-year-old TikTok user described the entire process to BuzzFeed, she said "They put an electronic device on my finger and took my temperature. Then, they did a throat swab. It was uncomfortable but not painful. Lastly, they did a "deep nose swab," which I was assuming would only be a couple of inches up my nose and a little uncomfortable. But, it ended up going down several inches, and it was painful. My eyes watered quite a bit, and it made me gag."
Another TikTok user named @timjhogan recorded her test and wrote that the health-care worker administering the test knocked everything in her nasal passages loose. She wrote that she saw sparkles in her eyes.
2020: the year we all make tik toks of our drive-thru coronavirus nasal swab tests pic.twitter.com/nuwKyScVpE — Tim Hogan (@timjhogan) March 18, 2020
A woman in Ontario wrote on her Instagram that her nostrils have never felt so violated as they did during her coronavirus test. She wrote, "The swab went so deep into my nostrils I thought they poked my brain."
A photographer for the Post and Courier, Lauren Petracca, filmed her test and shared the video with the caption "It is not fun."
