Gov. DeSantis says Florida is 3rd in the nation for coronavirus testing, but numbers tell a different story. (Orlando Sentinel/South Florida Sun Sentinel)

We're 22nd, not 3rd. We in the reality-based community laugh at the lies emanating from our Boy Governor, RONALD DION DeSANTIS.  Enough lying lies from the party of flummery, dupery, nincompoopery, waste, fraud, abuse, misfeasance, malfeasance, nonfeasance and corporate homicide.

From Orlando Sentinel:

Gov. DeSantis says Florida is 3rd in the nation for coronavirus testing, but numbers tell a different story

Leandro Moya Lara, who is homeless, is tested for COVID-19 in a program administered by the Miami-Dade County Homeless Trust, during the new coronavirus pandemic on April 16, 2020, in Miami. The Homeless Trust is targeting the senior population for testing, and is offering housing to those who test positive. (Lynne Sladky)

Skyler Swisher, Alonso Alcocer

Gov. Ron DeSantis has boasted that he significantly ramped up testing for the new coronavirus, making Florida No. 3 in the country for tracking the disease.

While that’s true for the raw number of tests performed, Florida doesn’t do as well when adjusting for population, only falling near the middle.

That’s based on a South Florida Sun Sentinel review of data collected by The COVID Tracking Project, a volunteer effort to compile state-by-state tallies of testing data.

RELATED: Testing falls woefully short as Trump seeks to lift stay-at-home orders

On a per-capita basis, Florida is No. 22 in the country, having conducted 1,002 tests for every 100,000 residents. New York, the epicenter of the outbreak, has tested more than twice as much, doing 2,703 tests for every 100,000 people.

Other states that have had far fewer deaths than Florida are also testing more. New Mexico, for instance, has done 1,592 tests for every 100,000 residents.

(Story continues below chart)

Health experts say testing is vitally important in containing the spread of the disease and will be crucial in restarting the nation’s economy.

DeSantis said he thinks Florida has a good ratio for testing and will do better in the future.

“Testing has been a big priority in the state of Florida. ... We’ve been able to get a better baseline about what is happening,” he said during a news briefing this week.

Florida has tested more than 215,000 people with about 10% of those results coming back positive. Much of that testing has happened in South Florida, where more than 89,000 tests have been conducted.

MORE COVERAGE: President Trump gives governors a 3-phase plan to reopen the economy, saying ‘we’re starting our life again'

The Florida National Guard has opened drive-thru testing sites in South Florida, Orlando and Jacksonville, collecting 47,200 samples. The Guard has also been assisting efforts to test nursing home residents and staff for the virus.

Two walk-up testing sites will open Saturday in Broward County, DeSantis said Thursday.

As of Thursday, more than 23,000 cases of COVID-19 had been confirmed in Florida, along with 668 deaths, according to state data.

Florida is testing more of its residents than California, which ranks near the bottom. California has done 609 tests for every 100,000 people.

Determining exactly what percentage of the population should be tested is difficult, said Andrew Noymer, an associate professor of public health at University of California Irvine.

“There is no magic number,” he said.

Ideally, everyone referred by a medical provider for a test should be able to get one, Noymer said.

That hasn’t always happened in Florida. As recently as Monday, Palm Beach County had to suspend its appointment line for drive-thru testing to wait for additional test kits. The line was reopened on Wednesday.

Staff writer Skyler Swisher can be reached at sswisher@sunsentinel.com, 561-243-6634 or @SkylerSwisher.