President Donald Trump says the federal government will distribute 150 million COVID-19 tests to states and other institutions to help facilitate the reopening of the economy.
Trump detailed the plan during an event in the Rose Garden at the White House on Monday, “I am pleased to report that we are announcing our plan to distribute 150 million Abbott rapid point of care tests in the coming weeks.”
He continued to say that 50 million tests will be sent to “protect the most vulnerable.” He broke that number down even further to say that 18 million will go to nursing homes, 15 million to assisted living facilities, 10 million to home health and hospice care, and roughly 1 million will go to historically Black colleges and universities.
The other 100 million tests will be distributed to the states and territories to “support efforts to reopen their economies and schools immediately.”
Trump asserted that his plan would allow schools to “test every teacher who needs it.”
Watch the video below:
Pres. Trump announces a plan to distribute 150 million rapid response COVID-19 tests “in the coming weeks.”
— ABC News (@ABC) September 28, 2020
“This would be more than double the number of tests already performed … 50 million tests would go to protect the most vulnerable.” https://t.co/MZqHM6QUmy pic.twitter.com/mN1qwAhVcD
Trump has repeatedly faced pressure over what his critics said was a lack of a national plan to test for COVID-19.
And Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden has focused a majority of his attacks, thus far, on Trump’s handling of the virus.
Trump’s announcement comes as there are more than 7.3 million confirmed cases of the virus and nearly 210,000 deaths.
The nation’s top health officials have also warned that the country could see a resurgence of the virus as it heads into the fall and winters. Dr. Anthony Fauci said during a panel discussion earlier this month, “We need to hunker down and get through this fall and winter because it’s not going to be easy.”
“We’ve been through this before. Don’t ever, ever underestimate the potential of the pandemic. And don’t try and look at the rosy side of things,” he added.
