President Donald Trump called the rise in COVID-19 cases “great news” Thursday night, suggesting that the increase in cases reflected an increase in testing.
“There is a rise in Coronavirus cases because our testing is so massive and so good, far bigger and better than any other country,” Trump tweeted. “This is great news, but even better news is that death, and the death rate, is DOWN. Also, younger people, who get better much easier and faster!”
However, Adm. Brett Giroir, Trump’s appointee to oversee testing, testified at a House hearing Thursday that “this is a real increase in cases.”
“There is no question that the more testing you get, the more you will uncover,” Giroir said. “But we do believe this is a real increase in cases because of the percent positives are going up. So, this is real increases in cases.”
He said the U.S. is not flattening the curve of cases, but rather “the curve is still going up.”
Trump’s tweet also came on the same day as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention updating its coronavirus death toll projections for July, estimating that between 140,000 and 160,000 total deaths nationally are expected by July 25.
While testing has increased in the U.S., Trump’s claim that it is “far bigger and better than any other country,” is also untrue.
According to Worldometer, a nonpartisan data aggregation site, the U.S. does not even place in the top ten for per capita testing rate.
Bahrain, Belarus, Cyprus, Denmark, Iceland, Israel, Lithuania, Luxembourg, Malta, Mauritius, Monaco, Portugal, Qatar, Russia, San Marino, Singapore, Spain, United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom all best the U.S. in terms of tests per 1 million.
The U.S. now has over 2.8 million cases and more than 130,000 coronavirus-linked deaths, and some states have seen spikes in recent weeks as they have begun reopening.
