President Trump said he doesn’t take responsibility for the lag in testing for COVID-19 in the United States.
After his Friday speech declaring the coronavirus pandemic a national emergency, Trump was asked by a reporter if he takes responsibility for the lack of testing capabilities and if he can guarantee everyone who needs a test will be given one.
“No, I don’t take responsibility at all because we were given a set of circumstances and we were given rules, regulations, and specifications from a different time. It wasn’t meant for this kind of an event,” the president said during a Rose Garden speech.
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He went on to say that the system of responding to an outbreak wasn’t designed for “the kind of numbers that we’re talking about” and added that the response system was “redesigned” very quickly with the help of the coronavirus task force, led by Vice President Mike Pence.
“And we’re now in very, very strong shape,” Trump said, noting that there will be the ability to test millions in a “very quick period of time.”
“We are going to be leaving a very indelible print for the future in case something like this happens again,” he continued. “And, frankly, the old system worked very well for smaller numbers, much smaller numbers, but not for these kinds of numbers.”
During his speech, where he was accompanied by a number of health and business leaders, Trump declared a national emergency to free up funds from the federal government.
“The action I am taking will open up access to up to $50 billion of very important and a large amount of money for states and territories and localities in our shared fight against this disease,” Trump said.
Trump announced a monthlong travel ban on countries from Europe on Wednesday, a move that sent stocks plummeting on Thursday. During Trump’s Friday speech, the Dow Jones Industrial index went up 1,000 points in a last-minute rally.
There have been almost 1,900 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and 41 deaths in the U.S. since the pandemic began.
