Trump: "COVID-19 Cases in the US Reach 1 Million... Because We Conducted More Tests Than Anyone Else"

[Asia Economy Reporter Naju-seok] U.S. President Donald Trump claimed that the reason for the high number of confirmed cases of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19) in the United States is because of extensive testing. President Trump actively highlighted that the U.S. conducted more COVID-19 tests than South Korea.

[Image source=Yonhap News]

On the 28th (local time), President Trump tweeted, "The reason the number of confirmed COVID-19 cases in the U.S. has surpassed 1 million is because we have conducted more tests than any other country in the world," adding, "Other countries claim to have fewer confirmed cases because they have conducted fewer tests than the U.S."

President Trump also emphasized the U.S. testing performance during a meeting with reporters that day. When asked by reporters at the White House, where he met with Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, whether South Korea conducted more than five times the number of tests per capita compared to the U.S., he responded, "I don't think that's true," disputing the claim.

Following this, White House COVID-19 Coordinator Debbie Birx provided specific figures, stating, "I want to clarify that South Korea's testing rate is 11 per 100,000 people, while the U.S. rate is 17 per 100,000." President Trump even demanded an apology from the reporter who asked the question comparing testing numbers with South Korea.

However, there are also criticisms that Birx's explanation contained an error, as she mentioned per 100,000 people when she actually meant per 1,000 people.

While President Trump engaged in a verbal exchange with reporters, his emphasis on testing numbers via Twitter appears to be an effort to highlight that the U.S. government is effectively responding to COVID-19.

Nevertheless, social media users in the U.S. refuted President Trump's claim that the high number of confirmed cases is due to extensive testing. They questioned why the mortality rate is high if more testing simply means more confirmed cases. According to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University, the U.S. has 1,012,583 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 58,355 deaths, resulting in a fatality rate of 5.76%. The high fatality rate despite an operational healthcare system suggests that there may still be many COVID-19 cases that have not been tested or confirmed.

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