Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer on Sunday said her state has the capacity to double or triple the number of coronavirus tests it performs but it needs federal help in acquiring supplies that support the task.
“The reagents and the swabs are absolutely essential. You can’t process all of these tests if you can’t take the sample and protect it and move forward through testing. And so while our capabilities are there, these important supplies are not,” the Democrat told NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
Testing is a key part of the nation’s push to detect and isolate the virus and reopen the economy.
President Trump, eager to get life back to normal, has urged states to take the lead on testing for the coronavirus by tapping into labs that are idle.
Yet Ms. Whitmer and other governors, notably Andrew Cuomo of New York, say they need more gear.
Mr. Cuomo says Mr. Trump is uniquely positioned to gather testing equipment by invoking the Defense Production Act. He also said the federal government can negotiate with foreign countries that produce much-needed chemicals for the tests.
Ms. Whitmer echoed those sentiments, as she faces pressure from pro-Trump protesters to relax stringent shutdown rules and reopen the state economy.
“If the federal government would use the Defense Production Act and say we are going to make every swab people need and we going to expedite creation of the reagents —we would know how prevalent COIVD-19 is,” she told NBC. “It would take down the risks associated with taking actions to reengage certain parts of our economy because we would have a lot more data about how prevalent COVID-19 still is in our state.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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