That’s actually incorrect. Each case applies only to each individual person. A person who tests positive multiple times will be counted only as one positive case. That’s why each state has more positive tests than they have positive cases:
https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/cases-updates/previous-testing-in-us.html
“The number of positive tests in a state is not equal to the number of cases, as one person may be tested more than once.”
Not so. It was reported here by a person who went in to be tested for COVID. She went back five times and was listed as tested for COVID five times in the records when she should only have been recorded once.