US President Donald Trump on Saturday said he has asked his administration to slow down novel coronavirus testing because robust testing turns up too many cases of COVID-19.
Trump told supporters at his campaign rally that the US has tested 25 million people, far more than any other country.
The “bad part,” Trump said, is that widespread testing leads to logging more cases of the virus.
Photo: Bloomberg
“When you do testing to that extent, you’re going to find more people, you’re going to find more cases,” Trump said. “So I said to my people: ‘Slow the testing down, please.’ They test and they test.”
The campaign of Democratic presidential rival and former US vice president Joe Biden said that Trump was putting politics ahead of the safety and health of Americans.
Trump opted to hold his first rally in 110 days, despite concerns from local health officials that it could lead to further spread of the virus in Tulsa, Oklahoma. Most of those in attendance declined to wear a mask.
“In an outrageous moment that will be remembered long after tonight’s debacle of a rally, President Trump just admitted that he’s putting politics ahead of the safety and economic well-being of the American people — even as we just recorded the highest number of new COVID-19 cases in almost two months and 20 million workers remain out of work,” the Biden campaign’s statement said.
The outbreak has killed nearly 120,000 people in the US, and more than 450,000 worldwide, according to a count by Johns Hopkins University.
The number of newly confirmed cases per day in the US has risen from about 21,400 two weeks ago to 23,200, according to an Associated Press analysis. In Florida, Georgia, Texas and Arizona — states that eased their stay-at-home restrictions early — daily deaths have been quietly rising since early this month.
“This virus has killed nearly 120,000 Americans and cost tens of millions their jobs, in large part because this president could not and would not mobilize testing as quickly as we needed it,” the statement said. “To hear him say tonight that he has ordered testing slowed — a transparent attempt to make the numbers look better — is appalling.”
Rising case numbers can partially be explained by the wider availability of testing. Mild cases, previously undetected because of limits on who could be tested, are now showing up in the numbers.
Separately on Saturday, Latin America and the Caribbean surpassed 2 million COVID-19 cases, with Brazil home to more than half of the infections, according to an Agence France-Presse tally based on official figures.
The virus is accelerating its spread in the region, an outbreak hotspot with 2,007,621 confirmed cases.
Brazil, Latin America’s largest country, trails only the US in infections and deaths. It has recorded 1,032,913 confirmed cases and 49,976 deaths from COVID-19.
Additional reporting by AFP
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