Daily US Times: New York governor Andrew Cuomo has said that the state will allow pharmacies to carry out tests for the virus.
Some 5,000 pharmacies would be able to carry out testing, with the aim to provide 40,000 tests per day, the governor said.
The US is the global epicenter of the pandemic right now and has more than 938,000 confirmed cases. New York City is the hotbed of the outbreak of the country, where almost a third of the 53,751 deaths took place.
President Donald Trump, meanwhile, did not hold his daily briefing, saying it was not worth his “time or effort”.
He blamed the media for asking “nothing but hostile questions” in a tweet. On Thursday’s White House news conference, Mr Trump suggested that disinfectant could potentially be used as a treatment for the virus. His comments gained a lot of criticism.
Doctors are pharmaceuticals companies condemned his comments as dangerous, as disinfectants are hazardous substances and can be poisonous if ingested.
After Trump’s remarks, calls to the hotline for exposure to certain household chemicals more than doubled in the 18 hours in New York City- 30 cases compared to 13 for the same time frame last year.
Trump said on Friday that his comments were sarcastic and taken out of context.
The daily White House press conference could run for more than two hours, but Thursday’s performance caused embarrassment even among some of his supporters.
The President’s tweet appears to confirm reports that the conferences may be coming to an end because polls suggest that the daily press briefings have not bolstered the president’s popularity among voters.
Trump’s briefing on Friday was unusually short – lasting just over 20 minutes – and he took no questions from the journalists.
On Saturday, Governor Cuomo announced that antibody screenings would be expanded at four hospitals, beginning with frontline medical workers adding that independent pharmacies would be allowed to collect samples for diagnostic tests.
He admits hospital admissions in the state have also begun to fall, what he described as a sign the crisis was starting to subside but urged people to remain cautious.
Meanwhile, three US states have allowed some shops to reopen despite the country’s death toll passed 51,000. Salons and spas are about to open in these states which were under lockdown in an attempt to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
Spas and salons could reopen in Oklahoma and Georgia while Alaska lifted restrictions on restaurants.
