TULSA: US President Donald Trump has said he asked health officials in his administration to slow down coronavirus testing, arguing that increased tests lead to more cases being discovered.
The president has claimed on several occasions that surges of COVID-19 in several states can be explained by greater numbers of 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” that led to more cases being discovered.
The United States has more deaths and cases than any other country and has carried out more than 25 million coronavirus tests, which is the highest in the world placing it outside the top 20 countries per capita.
“Here is the bad part: When you do testing to that extent, you are going to find more people, you will find more cases,” Trump argued. “So I said to my people slow the testing down. They test and they test.”
A White House official told a news agency that Trump was speaking in jest about his call for a slowdown in testing to call out the media’s coverage. “We are leading the world in testing, and we are proud to have conducted 25 million plus tests,” said the spokesman.
Presidential candidate Joe Biden’s campaign called Trump’s order to slow testing “appalling” and a “transparent attempt to make the numbers look better.”
Trump said his actions in blocking travellers from China and Europe had helped save hundreds of thousands of lives” He expressed dismay that the media had not given him credit for responding to the outbreak.
In his remarks, Trump used terms such as “Kung Flu” virus and “Chinese virus” to refer to COVID-19. The US president initially dismissed the threat of the coronavirus and clashed with state governors leading to a drop in his approval ratings.
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.
Six members of an advance team working in Tulsa ahead of the rally tested positive for COVID-19 just hours before the president took stage.
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