Coronavirus testing: California continues to lag compared to other states

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) -- An ABC7 News I-TEAM analysis of data from the COVID-19 tracking project and state health departments looked at processed COVID-19 tests for the 50 U.S. states and D.C.

When standardizing for population differences per 1 million people, California ranks 48th with 6,550 tests processed. Rhode Island ranks first with the most tests processed at 29,037 and Virginia ranks 51st with just 5,740 tests processed.

California has been lagging in processed COVID-19 tests for the last three weeks, ranking 50th on April 3, up to 45th last week and back down to 48th this week.

Still Gov. Newsom says California is improving.

"We are seeing substantially larger numbers tested on a daily basis. A little over 18,800 yesterday. A little over 12,500 today. We are seeing those numbers increase compared to even a week ago. We want to get to 25,000 tests per day in the next few weeks," Newsom said.

The governor says a task force is specifically focused on testing and looking at new types of tests and technologies.