A senior Health and Human Services Department official acknowledged the United States is experiencing a surge in coronavirus infections after his boss, President Trump, downplayed the health crisis.
“Yes, we are having increased cases, predominantly in the Sun Belt,” Adm. Brett Giroir, the Trump administration’s testing czar, said Monday morning on CNN’s New Day. “We do know we are having more cases than we did a week ago, two weeks ago, three weeks ago, four weeks ago, that is very clear. What I would like to point out, though, is that compared to where we were in April, we probably are having really less cases, slightly less cases than in April because of more testing, but there is no question that we’re having a surge right now.”
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The assistant HHS secretary was responding to CNN’s Alisyn Camerota, who began the interview by playing a clip of Trump claiming the U.S. has more cases of the coronavirus than other countries because of increased testing, a claim which is disputed by health experts.
Earlier this month, Giroir acknowledged that “everything should be on the table” when it comes to figuring out how to mitigate the spread of the virus.
The admiral was named the testing czar for the White House’s coronavirus task force back in March, when the country was testing only about 5,000 people daily, according to NPR. Under Giroir, who has been in the role for approximately four months, testing has surged to the point where more than half a million people have been tested daily dating back to last month, according to The COVID Tracking Project.
