US President Donald Trump has rated his efforts to combat the spread of coronavirus COVID-19 a 10 out of 10, despite widespread criticism of the nation's testing regime.
Speaking at a press conference on Tuesday, Trump announced a raft of new guidelines aimed at controlling the COVID-19 pandemic. More than 4000 people are infected in the United States, which is on a trajectory mirroring that of Italy, which now has 25,000 cases.
The Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) wants people to stay home if they feel sick, are within a household with a positive case, are elderly or have a serious underlying health condition. Work and schooling should be conducted from home where possible, social gatherings of more than 10 people should be avoided, as should dining at restaurants or bars, while people also shouldn't travel unnecessarily.
"We've made the decision to further toughen the guidelines and blunt the infection now," Trump told reporters at the White House.
"We'd much rather be ahead of the curve than behind it."
The new guidelines come as many US states go into lockdown, while major cities like New York and Los Angeles close down stores and centres where large numbers of people could congregate. Trump warned that these measures could last to August. While a nationwide curfew was reportedly under consideration, Trump rejected this.
Asked to rate his response to the virus on a scale of 10, the US President gave himself top marks.
"I would rate it a 10, I think we have done a great job," Trump said.
He pointed to early travel restrictions on China, where the illness originated, as justification for the score.
"We would have a whole different situation in this country if we didn't do that. The professionals, I think the professionals have done a great job."
However, the Trump administration has come under fire by experts for not providing clinicians with enough testing kits, while some kits from the CDC were faulty. There were also difficulties for officials in trying to understand how many people have been tested, as some private laboratories weren't reporting to the CDC.
Last week Dr Anthony Fauci described the regime as a failure.
"The idea of anybody getting [a coronavirus test] easily, the way people in other countries are doing it, we're not set up for that," he said.
Professor Howard Forman, a public health expert at Yale University, said more aggressive measures to get people tested were necessary.
"Certainly at a federal level, we've not done a good job at all," he was cited by BBC as saying.
"In an ideal world we'd be emulating South Korea - with parking lot and drive-through testing" which prevents sick people waiting in emergency rooms and infecting others."
Trump said on Tuesday that the system he inherited wasn't ready for the scale of testing necessary.
"We are doing something that has never been done in this country. We are doing very well."
The World Health Organization on Tuesday said countries must ramp up testing.
"You cannot fight a fire blindfolded. And we cannot stop this pandemic if we don’t know who is infected," he said.
"We have a simple message for all countries: Test, test, test. Test every suspected COVID-19 case. If they test positive, isolate them and find out who they have been in close contact with up to two days before they developed symptoms and test those people too."
