The two biggest egos in the pandemic fight, President Trump and New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo, said Tuesday they plan to double the Empire State’s testing capacity for the coronavirus, striking a partnership that can be replicated across the country.
Mr. Trump said Mr. Cuomo will be responsible for regulating labs and carrying out the testing, while his administration will assist New York in obtaining supplies.
“The federal government will work along with the state on the national manufacturers and distributors,” Mr. Trump said. “Together we’ll all work together to help them secure additional tests and we hope this model will work with the other states as well.”
For days Mr. Cuomo, a Democrat, said he was ready to lead on testing but needed the federal government to step in and wring chemicals, swabs and other supplies from the global supply chain.
He said it doesn’t make sense for governors to compete with each other or — in the case of Maryland’s Larry Hogan, look to South Korea for tests he couldn’t find domestically.
“Let’s just coordinate who does what. What do the states do, what does the federal government do? What do you do, and what do I do?” Mr. Cuomo said at his COVID-19 briefing in Buffalo, New York.
Mr. Cuomo, who flew to Washington immediately afterward, said Mr. Trump was receptive to his plan to double New York testing from 20,000 to 40,000 per day.
“It’s a very aggressive goal, and we said that we would work together to meet that goal, so it was a very good conversation,” Mr. Cuomo told MSNBC after he departed the Oval Office.
Mr. Trump and Mr. Cuomo are the two most prominent figures in the U.S. response to the coronavirus, which has infected over 800,000 people and killed over 43,000 across the country.
The president addresses the nation every night around dinnertime, briefing reporters on federal efforts, guidelines and modeling and scolding the media for failing to give him enough credit for his administration’s efforts.
The governor runs the hardest-hit state — over 40% of U.S. deaths have occurred in New York — and holds a closely-watched briefing each morning in which he mixes hard facts with anecdotes about how his family is handling the virus.
The pair compliment each other frequently, but they also bust each other’s chops like the native New Yorkers they are.
Mr. Cuomo, who reported 481 new deaths but progress in other metrics Tuesday, prodded the federal government for ventilators and other assistance at the height of the outbreak.
He then praised Mr. Trump for coming through with supplies, a Navy hospital ship and an overhaul of the Javits Convention Center that created bed space.
Mr. Trump said the federal government has “spared no expense” in getting help to New York. He said his administration sent Mr. Cuomo so many ventilators that New York is sending hundreds to Massachusetts, which is seeing a surge in hospitalizations.
The conversation at the White House centered on testing, however.
“We had a great talk on testing,” Mr. Trump said. “We have a very good understanding.”
Governors across the country have said the lack of supplies is a sticking point in achieving the type of testing regime necessary to pivot from “social distancing” to more surgical plan that allows states to detect hotspots and isolate infections.
The U.S. is running roughly 150,000 tests per day, though there’s emerging consensus that it’s not enough to reopen businesses, churches and other parts of society without risking flare-ups of the disease.
Harvard University researchers say the country should be running 500,000 to 700,00 per day to catch the majority of those infected and treat or isolate them, while tracking down their contacts for quarantine.
“To fight this disease we need to dramatically, dramatically expand testing capacity and frequently. We don’t have enough tests. That cry rings from one end of American to the other — urban, suburban, rural, North, East, South and West. We don’t have enough tests,” Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer said as Capitol Hill leaders agreed to set aside $25 billion for testing as part of a broader coronavirus-relief package.
Robert Redfield, the director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, told The Washington Post that the “second wave” of COVID-19 in the fall could be even worse because it will be time with seasonal flu.
Deborah Birx, the coronavirus coordinator, said the U.S. is hoping to have treatment options for people with the disease. She also said the U.S. will continue to build up its arsenal of ventilator and other supplies against the disease, and will maintain its surveillance of the disease heading into the fall.
The Food and Drug Administration announced a breakthrough Tuesday, saying it’s authorized the first COVID-19 test that allows Americans to collect a sample at home and mail it in. Officials said the tests allow patients to collect samples from their noses with swabs and saline and mail them inside an insulated package to Laboratory Corporation of America, or LabCorp.
It’s a notable advancement, since some patients may feel too sick to go out or fear infecting others at the doctor’s office.
“We worked with LabCorp to ensure the data demonstrated from at-home patient sample collection is as safe and accurate as sample collection at a doctor’s office, hospital or other testing site,” FDA Commissioner Stephen M. Hahn said.
Mr. Trump insists he’s doing his part in other areas. He’s using leverage under the Defense Production Act to procure tens of millions of testing swabs from a pair of U.S. companies and compiled a list of labs that have enough capacity to run additional tests.
Governors say they need more supplies to use that lab space, however.
“The president doesn’t seem to understand the difference between testing capacity and getting test results,” Illinois J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, told a virtual event hosted by The Washington Post Live.
The president might be right in saying there are plenty of machines to run tests, but “you don’t have the supplies to run those tests.”
Officials in Pennsylvania said additional tests are quickly coming online, including the Abbott ID-Now test and other pieces of equipment that spit out rapid results.
“However, laboratories will continue to need the supplies in order to be able to use these items to the highest capacity and potential,” said Lyndsay Kensinger, spokeswoman for Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf, a Democrat.
“It is important to remember that even with equipment to test, if the necessary materials are not available, then the testing capacity is significantly diminished.”
Mr. Trump signaled he’s willing to help on supplies but continued to highlighted the number of labs available to run samples. He also said not everyone wants to go all-in on testing.
“They have labs, tremendous labs as you know in New York, especially in the Manhattan area but all over the state. Great, great medical schools and federal labs,” Mr. Trump said. “So we have a very good understanding, we’re going to do very significant testing.”
“Not everybody wants to do such significant testing,” he added. “Testing is good in some cases and in some cases it’s not. You have governors who don’t want to go all out on the testing.”
He said the $25 billion provided by Congress is “far more money than, in my opinion, we’ll need.”
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.