Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, said Tuesday on NPR’s Morning Edition that President Donald Trump was incorrect in saying coronavirus testing problems had been resolved.
“Yeah, that’s just not true. I mean I know that they’ve taken some steps to create new tests, but they’re not actually produced and distributed out to the states.” Hogan said, when host Rachel Martin asked him about Trump’s assertions. “No state has enough testing.”
In a coronavirus task force briefing Monday, Trump said America’s coronavirus testing was better “than any country in the world.”
“We have done more tests, by far, than any country in the world, by far. Our testing is also better than any country in the world,” Trump said on Monday.
“We have built an incredible system to the fact we have now done more tests than any other country in the world and now the technology is really booming,” Trump said.
The president also said his administration “inherited a broken testing system” and have now “made it great.”
The president also said over a million Americans had been tested for the coronavirus, though on a per capita basis, the country lags behind other developed countries.
Asked about testing on CNN’s “New Day” on Tuesday morning, Hogan said states were “flying blind” without access to enough tests.
“Without the tests we really are flying blind, we’re sort of guessing about where the outbreaks are and about what the infection rate and the hospitalization rates are,” Hogan said.
As hospitals fill with coronavirus patients, protective equipment and ventilators become “as important as testing,” he added.
The Maryland Republican, who also chairs the National Governors Association, said he was listening to the “smart team” in the White House like coronavirus task force leader Deborah Birx and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci who were giving accurate information.
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Hogan, who issued a statewide stay-at-home order on Monday, had a grim outlook for states’ pandemic preparedness.
“There’s nobody in America that’s prepared,” he said.
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