TULSA (US) – While addressing thousands of supporters on Saturday, US President Donald Trump said he had asked officials to slow down testing for the novel coronavirus, calling it a “double-edged sword” that led to more cases being discovered.
Trump said the US had now tested 25 million people, far more than other countries.
“When you do testing to that extent, you’re gonna find more people you’re gonna find more cases. So I said to my people slow the testing down, please,” Trump told a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, where many people were seen without face masks.
A White House official said the president was joking about the call for a slowdown in testing.
“He was obviously kidding. We are leading the world in testing and have conducted 25 million + in testing,” the official said.
Trump told supporters that his actions of blocking travellers from China and Europe had helped save “hundreds of thousands of lives.” However, the “radical fake news” media had not given him credit for doing what he called “a phenomenal job”, he said.
Several US states are reporting spikes in coronavirus infection rates.
Health experts say diagnostic testing accounts for some, but not all, of the spurt in cases. They also call it a key tool in fighting the spread of the disease, which had been detected in at least 2.23 million people across the United States as of Saturday.
In his address, Trump used terms such as “Kung Flu” virus and “Chinese virus” to refer to COVID-19. “That name gets further and further away from China, as opposed to calling it the Chinese virus,” he said.
Trump’s response to the outbreak has sapped his popularity.
The US president initially dismissed the threat of the coronavirus, and sparred with state governors as they tried to slow its spread. His approval ratings have tanked in recent weeks, and Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden now has a 13-point lead over Trump.
Seventy-six per cent of Americans remain concerned about the spread of COVID-19, according to the latest Reuters/Ipsos survey.
(Photos syndicated via Reuters)
This story has been edited by BH staff and is published from a syndicated field