Debriefing the COVID-19 Briefing: April 27

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President Trump increased his estimate for COVID-19 fatalities to 60,000-70,000. Before today, he predicted 50-60k. All of these figures are below the initial projection of 100k. He expressed optimism about the road ahead, with stabilizing and declining curves across the nation. “There is a hunger for getting our country back and its happening and its happening faster than people would think.”

He added, “We are doing very well. Very well.”

The US death toll is now north of 55,000.

Monday’s briefing was heavy on testing. Currently, the US has conducted 5.4 million tests. President Trump said the US will soon “much more than double” testing.

Admiral Giroir said 8 million tests (or 2 million/week) would be completed in May. Vice President Pence explained testing problems early on resulted from insufficient lab capacity. Millions of tests produced could not be processed in the existing lab. Pence admitted that there is a difference between having a test and processing a test. He credited partnerships with commercial labs for vastly expanding testing capacity.

The president said he’d heard there was a glitch in the roll out of phase two of the Paycheck Protection Program. Major spoke with Jim Nussle, president and CEO of the Credit Union National Association.