President Donald Trump praised the coronavirus testing capabilities in the United States but said the widespread practice might be "overrated," during a speech at a Pennsylvania medical equipment distribution center.
While speaking at Owens & Minor Inc. in Allentown, Pennsylvania, Trump announced 10 million coronavirus tests had been administered since the pandemic began. But he suggested testing alone will not solve the problem.
"We have more cases than anybody in the world, but why? Because we do more testing," Trump said. "When you test, you have a case. When you test, you find something is wrong with people. If we didn't do any testing, we would have very few cases. They don't want to write that. It's common sense. We test much more."
"We have the best testing in the world," Trump added. "Could be that testing's, frankly, overrated. Maybe it is overrated."
But some public health experts have pushed back on that idea, saying the United States should increase its daily testing by the thousands to reduce death, curb outbreaks, and allow for the country to safely reopen for business.
"It was inadequate testing that precipitated the national shutdown," Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, told House lawmakers during a briefing Wednesday. "We must not make the same mistakes again as we open up our nation."
The U.S. has 1,457,593 confirmed coronavirus cases, including 86,912 deaths.