WASHINGTON - President Donald Trump, under growing pressure to expand coronavirus testing as states move to reopen their economies, unveiled a new plan on Monday to ramp up the federal government's help to states, but his proposal runs far short of what most public health experts say is necessary.
"These were not complaining people. They had everything they needed. They had their ventilators; they had their testing," Trump said Monday after a call with governors."We're getting them what they need." The Trump administration has come under intense criticism for not doing more, and for not providing specific guidance to the states about how much testing is necessary in its initial plan for reopening the economy,"Guidelines for Reopening America Again," released this month. Outside experts have recommended that anywhere from 0.9 per cent to 50 per cent of the American public must be tested for the coronavirus every week.
Congress has been pushing the Trump administration to come up with a clearer strategy. The US$484 billion stimulus package lawmakers passed last week designated US$25 billion to expand testing capacity and required the administration to come up with a plan to support the states. Still eager to be the dominant voice on the crisis, Trump reversed a decision announced by the White House to cancel his daily coronavirus news briefing Monday and went before the cameras again despite days of complaining that the events were not worth the time and effort because of journalistic bias. He took over the announcement of a testing plan originally put out by lower-level officials.