President Trump has repeatedly insisted the U.S. has plenty of coronavirus tests for everyone who needs one, though it is up to states to procure them. One of the glaring holes in Trump's assertion is that state officials are publicly and privately confirming what people trying to get coronavirus tests have long known: There are not enough tests.
So when Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) announced Monday that his state had purchased 500,000 COVID-19 tests from testing powerhouse South Korea, thanks to Hogan's Korean-speaking wife, Trump suggested Hogan was just ill-informed about labs available in Maryland. Vice President Mike Pence later stepped up to announce that the federal government would now let governors utilize the federal labs Hogan says he's been "desperately been trying to get help" from. Hogan took to Twitter on Monday night to thank Trump, kind of.
The U.S. has conducted just over 4 million tests, according to the COVID Tracking Project. That is far short of the number of tests that many governors and nearly all public health experts say is needed to manage the outbreak after coronavirus lockdowns are lifted.