Donald Trump vows US will be doing 5 million coronavirus tests a day ‘very soon’
Donald Trump said that the United States will be conducting five million Covid-19 tests a day ‘very soon.’
The president made the bold prediction Tuesday evening while making remarks about the country’s small businesses, a group devastated by the economic turmoil caused by the outbreak and the lockdown in place to slow it.
Near the end of the briefing, Trump was asked about the plan he unveiled on Monday to ramp up testing across the country, which reportedly includes sending all 50 states enough testing supplies to screen 2% of their populations each month. Although that may not be enough to reopen the country as soon as Trump wants, according to some health experts who claim 5 million countrywide tests a day will be needed to safely open up by June.
However, the blueprint for Trump’s plan, given by Vice President Mike Pence on Monday, will only reportedly create the capacity to conduct up to 2 million tests per week across the country by the end of May. So far, an estimated 5.4 million coronavirus tests have been conducted since the beginning of the outbreak, which has seen the US test roughly 200,000 people per day.
When a reporter asked the president if the country could reach the five million-test benchmark, Trump responded: ‘We’ll increase it. And we’ll increase it by much more than that (his previously announced plan) in the very near future. We’re way ahead of everyone on testing’
The reporter then asks Trump to clarify whether he thinks the country can conduct 5 million tests per day and the president doubled down.
‘Oh, we’re going to be there very soon. If you look at the numbers, it could be that we’re getting very close,’ he said.
‘I mean, I don’t have the exact numbers. We would have had them if you asked me the same question a while ago because people with the statistics were there. We’re going to be there very soon.’
Trump then hit out at NBC for an ‘incorrect report’ regarding testing and said his administration has ‘not been given the kind of credit it deserves.’
Public health officials have disagreed on how many tests the country will need to conduct, and at what rate they will need to conduct them, to open up the country. The Trump Administration’s plan to test 2 million a week represents the low end of what some say are needed, although other researches have said much more testing will be needed.