President Trump announced that more than 1 million Americans have been tested for the coronavirus since the outbreak began.
Trump and Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said more coronavirus tests have been given to people in the United States than anywhere else in the world. Azar noted that doctors are testing an average of 100,000 people per day.
“Today, we reached a historic milestone in our war against the coronavirus. Over 1 million Americans have now been tested. More than any other country by far, not even close, and tested accurately,” said Trump.
Azar thanked officials from the Food and Drug Administration, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and private sector partners for working to scale up testing in the U.S. rapidly. He added, “The United States hit more than 1 million samples tested, a number that no other country has reached. We are now testing nearly 100,000 samples a day, also a level that no other country has reached.”
The Trump administration has been criticized for its test-kit rollout when the outbreak first began in the U.S. As of Monday, more than 159,000 people in the country had tested positive for the coronavirus, and more than 2,900 people had died since contracting the virus.
