US President Donald Trump on Saturday said that he was encouraging coronavirus response workers to slow down testing and argued that increased tests lead to more cases being discovered.
Trump has claimed falsely on several occasions that surges of COVID-19 in several states can be explained by increased diagnostic tests.
At his first rally since the outbreak forced nationwide shutdowns in March, Trump told the crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma that testing was a “double-edged sword.”
The US — which has more deaths and cases than any other country — has carried out around 27 million coronavirus tests, placing it 26th in the world, per capita.
The President said,“So I said ‘slow the testing down.’ They test and they test.”
Last Saturday, Trump called the novel coronavirus an “invincible enemy” and exuded confidence that America will be able to defeat it soon.
Trump used the occasion to thank the US military in the successful fight against the novel coronavirus.
Coronavirus cases have spiked in several states, including Oklahoma, and local health officials had asked Trump to postpone the rally, fearing it would contribute to the spread.
Ahead of the really, six members of an advance team working in Tulsa had tested positive for COVID-19.
On Wednesday, the US leader had said now that people are getting their jobs back and the stock market is booming after the crisis triggered by coronavirus, the United States is on its way to a “very big comeback”.
Trump won Pennsylvania by less than a percentage point in 2016, an unexpected victory along with wins in Wisconsin and Michigan that propelled him to the presidency.