President Donald Trump on Monday said that the United States has the biggest COVID-19 testing programme in the world, better than big countries like Russia, China, India and Brazil.
Trump at the White House roundtable said, “We have one of the lowest mortality rates anywhere”.
More than 34 lakh Americans have tested positive for COVID-19 so far and over 1,37,000 have died due to the disease, both of which are the largest numbers among all the countries.
“We test more than anybody by far. And when you test, you create cases. So we have created cases. I can tell you that some countries, they test when somebody walks into a hospital sick or walks into maybe a doctor’s office, but usually a hospital. That is the testing they do, so they do not have cases, whereas we have all these cases. So, it is a double-edged sword”, the President further added.
At the same time, the United States has the lowest mortality rate or just about the lowest mortality rate due to the disease in the world, Trump noted.
Last month, Trump said that the US is doing well in “so many ways”.
“You see what’s going on with NASDAQ. We just broke another record yesterday. Some good news came out of the Federal Reserve today, I think some very good news,” the US leader added.
“But we have the best and certainly, by far, the biggest testing programme anywhere in the world. If you tested China or Russia or any of the larger countries, if you just tested India, as an example, the way we test, you would see numbers that would be very surprising. Brazil too. You know, Brazil is going through a big problem, but they do not do testing like we do,” Trump said.
The global pandemic, which Trump blames on Beijing, has intensified already strong tensions between the two countries over an ongoing trade war.
The trade deal with China that was signed early this year remains intact, the president said. “It is intact, they (China) are buying. Whether they buy or not, that is up to them. They are buying,” he said.
Earlier, experts warned that any potential “second wave” of virus cases could be compounded in the autumn and winter, when the typical American flu is more rampant.
In an effort to address that inequality, Giroir announced the launch of a $40 million initiative to fight COVID-19 among ethnic minorities and other vulnerable communities.