During the daily press conference, US President Donald Trump said that he has drastically increased testing capacity. 300,000 people can now be tested for the coronavirus every day, compared to 150,000 previously. More than 9 million Americans have already been tested for the coronavirus, and according to Trump, “no other country has had so much testing.”
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That raises questions for CBS reporter Weijia Jiang. “Why is this so important? Why do you view testing capacity as a global competition when Americans are dying of the virus every day?”
“Ask China”
Trump then orders the journalist, who is of Asian descent, “to put that question to China.” “Don’t ask me, ask China.” Then he gives the floor to a reporter from CNN, who is still trying to return to the question of CBS journalist Jiang. Trump thinks it is enough and abruptly ends the press conference.
Watch the excerpt here:
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CNN reporter Brian Stelter says after the press conference that journalists “should show solidarity” and form a front against the “racist” statements of the president, writes The Guardian. “Trump did not want to hear the questions. It is racist to say to a reporter of Asian descent, ‘just ask China,” said Stelter. “Trump repeatedly attacks outnumbered journalists. That is very disturbing.”
“Transition to greatness”
Before Trump ended the press conference, he spoke at length about testing capacity. Trump sees stepping up the tests as an essential part of the plan to “reopen America gradually and safely.” The economy will revive from the third quarter, according to the president. He calls this phase ‘transition to greatness’.
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“Next year we will have one of the best years we’ve ever had. Because there is a pent-up demand,” he says. Trump describes it as “a question like we’ve never seen before”.
Economy in severe weather
Meanwhile, the US economy is still in dire straits. The number of unemployment claims has risen to 33 million since last month.
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In the meantime, the number of people who died of the coronavirus has passed the limit of 80,000. This is evident from the latest counts from Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore.
Of all countries, the US has been most affected by the corona pandemic. More than 1.3 million infection cases of the virus are known in the country. More than 4.1 million infections have been registered worldwide.
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