Rabat – US President Donald Trump published a tweet yesterday praising the number of tests the nation has conducted amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
‘’The only reason the U.S. has reported one million cases of CoronaVirus is that our Testing is so much better than any other country in the World. Other countries are way behind us in Testing, and therefore show far fewer cases!’’ wrote the president.
In a presidential press conference on April 28, Trump announced that the US will “very soon” be conducting as many as 5 million coronavirus tests each day.
Assistant Secretary of Health Brett Giroir, who is currently in charge of the government’s testing response, does not see the US running this many tests anytime soon. In an interview with Time magazine, Giroir stated that “there is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even 5 million tests a day.”
While Trump has expressed confidence in the American testing capacity, many US states are still struggling with test shortages. Hospitals across the nation are trying to figure out how to conduct the testing themselves, as opposed to relying on state institutions or private labs.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, America’s leading infectious disease expert, said in an interview with Time magazine: “We are not in a situation where we can say we are exactly where we want to be with regard to testing.”
The US reached a milestone yesterday by confirming more than 1 million cases of coronavirus. New York state remains the epicenter of the crisis, with more than 300,000 reported cases.
While the US is still experiencing exponential growth of COVID-19 cases, Donald Trump has expressed a need to reopen the economy. While many states have issued stay at home orders, such as California, some states are starting to allow non-essential businesses to open.
The US will likely soon reach unprecedented levels of unemployment. Kevin Hassett, senior economic adviser for the president, expects the rate of joblessness to reach 20% in June. While some Americans qualified for stimulus checks, issued with a copy of a letter signed by Donald Trump, many still face financial uncertainty going into the coming months.
As the country’s COVID-19 struggle rages on, Trump created a new controversy on April 23, when he suggested that injecting disinfectants and exposing the human body to light could cure the disease. While the president had already suggested that summer heat could combat the coronavirus, suggesting disinfectants as a cure shocked medical experts around the world.
