President Donald Trump said he thinks the U.S. will “very soon” be able to test 5 million people a day for the coronavirus – but there’s “no way on Earth” the country can reach that goal, according to the government’s top testing official.
“There is absolutely no way on Earth, on this planet or any other planet, that we can do 20 million tests a day, or even five million tests a day,” Adm. Brett Giroir, assistant secretary of health who is in charge of the government’s testing response, told TIME in an interview he gave Tuesday morning that was published later in the evening. The interview took place before Trump’s remarks about testing.
