Trump tasks states with own testing; federal supply is ‘last resort’

US President Donald Trump on Monday unveiled national coronavirus guidelines that tasks individual states to ensure widespread testing is available but leaves the federal government acting as a “supplier of last resort.”

Public health experts say US testing needs to increase drastically to allow the country to safely begin reopening the economy, as Trump seeks a speedy economic revival.

Trump said states will “unlock their full capacity” under the White House plan.

Some governors have criticized the Trump administration for putting too much responsibility on the states to ensure adequate testing is available as they clamour for increased supplies.

The guidelines issued by the White House says the federal government will provide “strategic direction and technical assistance” on testing and expedite new tests in regulatory pipeline, but procuring and administering tests is left to the states.

Meanwhile, 16 top former US health officials on Monday urged Congress to devote funding to expand by 180,000 the contact-tracing workforce needed to monitor the novel coronavirus, in order to safely reopen the economy.

In a letter to House and Senate leaders, the officials also said people infected with the novel coronavirus should be able to self-isolate in vacant hotels.

“The existing public health system is currently capable of providing only a fraction of the contact-tracing and voluntary self-isolation capacity required to meet the Covid-19 challenge,” they wrote.

The 16 signatories include Scott Gottlieb, a former Food and Drug Administration chief for President Donald Trump, and health authorities who served in the administration of President Barack Obama.

They said additional staff were needed to track down those exposed to anyone infected for testing and possible isolation in order to stem the spread of the virus until “a safe, effective vaccine is on the market.”

The United States has more than 979,000 confirmed coronavirus cases – including over 55,000 deaths – nearly a third of the global count, which has surpassed 3 million, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.

Governors of some of the hardest-hit states, including New York and New Jersey, have stressed that more testing and contact-tracing is needed before they can begin restarting their economies.

New York City is hiring 1,000 contact-tracers, Mayor Bill de Blasio told a press conference.

New York State Governor Andrew Cuomo on Monday said a second round of a coronavirus antibody study indicated that 15 per cent of 7,500 people randomly tested across New York state may have already been infected with the virus.

The figure was nearly 25 per cent in New York City.

Cuomo said another 337 people had died of the virus in the state, saying that fatalities are “on the decline,” but “still tragically high.” New York’s death toll is more than 17,300.

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The governor said he will extend the stay-at-home order, set to expire on May 15, “in many parts of the state,” a day after announcing that certain “low-risk” areas in upstate New York – far from the city – may be able to return to some manufacturing and construction jobs then.

Texas Governor Gregg Abbott said Monday that his state’s stay-at-home order will expire at the end of the month, allowing Texas to essentially reopen, with some restrictions in place.

Governors in Michigan, Wisconsin and Ohio also announced easing of lockdown restitutions to start next month. (dpa)