Trump revealed a “phased approach” to reopening businesses which would be based on current data, protect vulnerable individuals from contracting the virus, mitigate a resurgence of the coronavirus and be enacted at the discretion of state governors.
“As I have said for some time now, a national shutdown is not a sustainable long term solution,” Trump said at a news briefing Thursday. “To preserve the health of our citizens, we must also preserve the health and functioning of our economy. Over the long haul, you can’t do one without the other.”
According to the guidelines, states must be able to “quickly set up safe and efficient screening and testing sites for symptomatic individuals and trace contacts of COVID+ results.”
However, the number of available tests in the U.S. has come into question as governors and other lawmakers say the U.S. testing system is not comprehensive enough to reopen the country.
“The more testing, the more open the economy,” said New York Governor Andrew Cuomo during a Wednesday briefing. “But there’s not enough national capacity to do this. We can’t do it yet. That is the unvarnished truth.”
In a statement released Thursday, Pelosi agreed that current U.S. testing levels are insufficient.
“Testing is the key to opening our country to resume our lives,” Pelosi wrote. “The White House’s vague and inconsistent document does nothing to make up for the President’s failure to listen to the scientists and produce and distribute national rapid testing.”
“The President’s continued insistence on moving forward without testing, contact tracing, demographic data collection and a respect for science and the facts risks further death and economic disaster,” the statement continued.
Pelosi noted that only 1 percent of Americans have been tested for coronavirus. The president said Wednesday that the U.S. has “the most expansive testing system anywhere in the world.”
“President Trump and his team of health experts have presented to Governors and the American people a data-driven, science-based, phased plan to reopen our country,” said the White House in a statement sent to Newsweek early Friday. “Instead of ripping up the document like she did with the President’s State of the Union Address, the Speaker should work with the Administration to get Americans back to work safely.”
Pelosi has long criticized the White House’s response to the coronavirus pandemic, especially in regards to testing. In an open letter to Democrats released on Tuesday, Pelosi said the U.S. “did not have proper testing available in March despite Trump repeatedly claiming that we did; and even now, we do not have adequate tests, masks, PPE, and necessary equipment, which creates unnecessary death and suffering.”
House Minority Leader Chuck Schumer and Senator Patty Murray proposed a plan on Wednesday that would allow $30 billion in emergency funding to increase U.S. coronavirus testing capacity.
“If this is mishandled,” Schumer said, “the disease could resurge. Testing is the best tool we have to fight the virus today.”
While Trump has placed the onus of coronavirus testing on state governments, some governors say they still need assistance from the federal government.
“If you noticed the guidelines today, it said testing is the responsibility of the states,” North Carolina Governor Roy Cooper said on MSNBC Thursday. “We’ve figured that out, but we need significant help from the federal government right now.”
Updated 4:00 p.m. EST 04/17/2020: This story has been updated to include a statement from the White House.
