On Monday, United States President Donald Trump revealed his administration's latest strategy in aiding the states to ramp up their coronavirus testing capabilities.
Latest documents that have been released and obtained by CNBC News claimed that most of the work is already done with regards to testing strategies. The said documents also contained a testing overview and blueprint.
During a news conference held at the Rose Garden, Trump formally announced the plan to deploy the full strength and power of the federal government in order to help the states, cities, and local governments triumph the battle against this plague.
Partnership between states
According to CBS, the first document which is the testing overview, served as the answer of the administration to the questions and criticisms surrounding its handling of the coronavirus testing since the beginning of the outbreak in the US. In addition, it also outlined eight responsibilities of the federal government and claimed that seven have already been completed.
Meanwhile, the testing blueprint describes a so-called partnership between states, the private sector, and the federal government. Based on the blueprint and the description of the said partnership most of the responsibilities including funding, designing and execution of the coronavirus testing plan fall on the states.
In the past few months, states have repeatedly called to the federal government for them to take charge of testing and tracing the infections. The states have also repeatedly indicated that they lack funds and expertise as compared to the federal government.
Reopening of states and lack of testing capabilities
In addition to the testing documents, Trump also announced that the federal government is willing and ready to sent enough tests and testing materials to all 50 states , which can cater at least 2% of the population of each state. The new federal testing efforts was first reported by The Wall Street Journal.
Moreover, Trump also told reporters that the plan on ramping up testing is aimed particularly at African American and Hispanic communities. As of the moment, the ability to be able to widely and repeatedly test populations that are highly at risk should be the cornerstone of any plan to possibly reopen the nation's economy.
It can be recalled that the president has already called on the different states to lift their stay-at-home orders and loosen up on imposed restrictions. However, many governors contradicted and said that it was too early to do so.
Trump has been repeatedly criticized for how he handled the scarcity and shortages of effective coronavirus testing supplies and laboratories. Critics have pointed the blame on the federal government saying that it is their failure in their response to the pandemic.
Trump, however, answered his critics and said that it should be the states and not the federal government that should take responsibility in the testing. This is also reflected in the documents that were released that underscored the limited role that Trump wants the federal government to take.
Several states are about to formally reopen this week, however, the lack of testing still is a factor that is keeping people from returning to their normal ways despite the stay-at-home orders being lifted.
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