Estimating The Possible Role Of Testing Capacity And Social Distancing In Predicting The Growth Rate Of Daily Covid-19 Cases.

Background: The purpose of this study was to estimate the effect of social distancing (days since the imposition of a lock-down) and the number of daily tests conducted per million population on the daily growth rate of COVID-19 cases.

Methods: After excluding the first 30 days since the announcement of an index case in a country, relevant data for the next forty days was collected from four countries: Belgium, Italy, South Korea and United Kingdom. Two online databases: Our World in Data and worldometer were used for the collection of data which included the number of new COVID-19 cases and the number of tests conducted on a given day.