No plan in sight: Test troubles cloud Trump recovery effort

WASHINGTON — The United States is struggling to test enough people to track and control the spread of the novel coronavirus, a crucial first step to reopening parts of the economy, which President Donald Trump is pushing to do by May 1. “There’s just so many inefficiencies and problems with the way that testing currently happens across this country.” Trump’s plan envisions setting up “sentinel surveillance sites” that would screen people without symptoms in locations that serve older people or minority populations. I don’t do international supply chain.” Trump has denied that the U.S. has fallen short, asserting that the nation has the “most expansive and accurate testing system anywhere in the world.” Only in recent days has the U.S. surpassed the testing rate in South Korea, which has conducted about one test for every 100 people. Trump’s “testing czar,” Dr. Brett Giroir, said Friday the U.S. would need to process 4.5 million tests per month to enter the first phase of easing social distancing guidelines, under the White House’s reopening plan. “We still probably need to be doing three times more testing than we’re doing now,” said Dr. Ashish K. Jha, director of the Global Health Institute at Harvard.