Alex Wong/Getty Images(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — In a bid to safely reopen the economy, President Donald Trump on Monday rolled out plans to increase testing across the country, a critical component health experts like Dr. Debora Birx and Dr. Anthony Fauci say is necessary to put the economy back on track.
During a late afternoon press conference, President Trump said “Testing is not going to be a problem at all.” Appearing next to executives from CVS and other commercial labs and retailers, the president also urged governors in a separate call to reopen their school systems, saying doing that would be a “good thing.”
Citing a “hunger” around Americans, the president added during his press conference, “We are doing everything in our power to heal the sick and to gradually reopen our nation and to safely get our people back to work. They want to get back to work. And they want to get back to work soon.”
The president said that can only happen with new testing guidelines and introduced the new White House blueprint that will “expand the number of testing platforms established, monitoring systems to detect local outbreaks, and conduct contact tracing.”
One component allows seniors to access testing through Medicare and by encouraging governors to allow the same for those on Medicaid.
In addition, more tests will be distributed to states, where more will be sent to states dealing with a higher amount of COVID-19 cases.
When reporters asked him regarding the comments he made about disinfectants on Thursday and if he would take responsibility for those who took his comments literally, President Trump said, “No, I don’t. No, I can’t imagine. I can’t imagine that.”
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