Coronavirus has brought US 'to its knees': CDC director

The coronaviurs has brought the United States “to its knee,” a US public health chief told Congress on Tuesday as some states have seen record hospitalizations related to the fatal virus.

“We have all done the best that we can do to tackle this virus and the reality is that it’s brought this nation to its knees,” Dr Robert Redfield, director of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), told a hearing in Washington.

He also said that “the core capabilities of public health” in the country had been seriously underfunded for a long time, noting “now is the time” to step up spending.

“We are probably going to spend $7tn because of one little virus,” he told the House energy and commerce committee.

So far, more than 2,424,400 people have been infected with the virus across the United States and over 123,470 have died.

The Trump administration has been harshly criticized for its slow response to the disease especially as the president repeatedly downplayed the risk of COVID-19 and the damage it would come to cause in the country.

Redfield’s remarks come as cases have surged in seven US states including Arizona, Arkansas, California, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Texas following the easing of restrictions.

All the states confirmed a record daily case increase on Tuesday, with each admitting record numbers of infected people to hospital.

In addition, over 800 deaths were reported across the country on Tuesday, The Washington Post reported, saying it was the first increase in fatalities since 7 June.

In California, more than 5,000 cases of infections were reported in a single day for the first time, as Arizona, Nevada and Missouri also reported record case increases.

Florida reported 3,200 new cases on Tuesday, which marked the sixth day of over 25,000 cases.

Also on Tuesday, Dr Anthony Fauci, the top US infectious disease expert, testified that there will be more COVID-19 testing, hours after Trump insisted he was serious when he said at a rally he had called for testing to slow down in the country.

During his Tulsa, Oklahoma, rally on Saturday night, Trump said he had encouraged US health officials to slow down coronavirus testing to prevent the number of cases being discovered from rising.

Trump says he asked health officials to slow down COVID-19 testing

US President Trump said Saturday he was encouraging health officials in his administration to "slow down" the coronavirus testing.

But Fauci undermined Trump's claim that he had directed his health policy advisers to slow down the rate of testing.

"None of us have ever been told to slow down on testing. That just is a fact," Fauci said. "In fact, we will be doing more testing."

Fauci was pointing to a plan outlined by Redfield to boost testing and tracing systems.

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