US COVID-19 Cases Reach 1 Million... Trump Says "Due to Excellent Diagnostic Testing" (Update)

Trump "Diagnostic testing far superior to any country in the world"

Donald Trump, President of the United States [Photo by Yonhap News]

[Asia Economy Reporter Han Seung-gon] The number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in the United States surpassed 1 million on the 28th (local time). U.S. President Donald Trump evaluated that this number of confirmed cases was due to the country's excellent testing capacity. Similar to South Korea's COVID-19 response method of proactively conducting tests to identify confirmed cases and achieve recovery, U.S. health authorities are also responding in the same way, which is interpreted as the reason why confirmed cases exceeded 1 million.

The White House posted an article from the media outlet on its homepage that day, stating, "While President Trump announced plans to expand the response, the U.S. has surpassed South Korea in testing," and added, "More than 5 million COVID-19 diagnostic tests have been conducted in the U.S. so far, thanks to close cooperation between the Trump administration and the private sector."

The media reported that the U.S. conducted 16.42 tests per 1,000 people, while South Korea conducted 11.68 tests per 1,000 people. According to U.S. media, the U.S. has conducted about 5.4 million tests so far, surpassing South Korea's approximately 608,000 tests.

U.S. President Donald Trump posted on his Twitter that "The reason there are many confirmed COVID-19 cases in the United States is because the testing is that good." Photo by President Trump's Twitter capture

Regarding this, President Trump posted on his Twitter around 2 p.m. that day, "The only reason 1 million coronavirus cases have been reported in the U.S. is because diagnostic testing is far superior to any other country in the world," and added, "Other countries lag behind the U.S. in diagnostic testing, so they show much fewer confirmed cases," praising himself.

Earlier that day, President Trump made similar claims at an event supporting small businesses held at the White House. When asked by a reporter about the U.S. surpassing 1 million confirmed cases, Trump said, "We have conducted more tests than all other countries combined."

He continued, "Everyone keeps talking about South Korea, but I have a good relationship with President Moon Jae-in," adding, "He will tell you how well the U.S. has been testing. He told me that very strongly."

Citizens are walking wearing masks in New York, USA, where some areas have been placed under lockdown due to the spread of the novel coronavirus infection. Photo by EPA Yonhap News

President Trump also had a heated exchange with a reporter who asked if South Korea had conducted more COVID-19 tests than the U.S. that morning.

During a meeting with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis at the White House, Trump showed discomfort when asked by Yahoo reporter Hunter Walker.

Walker asked, "South Korea has conducted five times more tests per capita than the U.S. Why is that?" Trump replied, "I don't think that's true."

The reporter insisted again, "This is a fact," and argued, "Overall, we have 14 times more infections than South Korea, and South Korea has a much higher population density."

In response, White House COVID-19 coordinator Debbie Birx cited statistics, explaining that South Korea's testing rate was 11,869 per million people, while the U.S. had 16,959 tests with 17 cases per million.

Trump then said, "Is Yahoo going to apologize now? That's why you're 'Yahoo,' and no one knows who you are. Including me, no one knows who you are."

The reporter eventually replied, "There was a mistake in the question. The U.S. has surpassed South Korea in tests per capita since the beginning of this month." Trump responded, "Thank you for apologizing. That's very nice."

Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins University in the U.S. reported that as of 7:32 p.m. Eastern Time that day, the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. was 1,011,877. The death toll was reported as 58,351.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.