In a last-ditch attempt to make his administration look good, US president Donald Trump drew comparisons with India to prove that the US is leading COVID-19 testing globally. He was talking at a roundtable discussion on the coronavirus outbreak and storm preparedness at Pelican Golf Club in Florida on Friday.

“Testing wise, we have tested almost 60 million people throughout the country, which is about six times more than any other country -close to six times more than any other country,” he said.

Drawing a parallel between the US and Indian data, Trump continued, “If you look at India, they’re at 11 million. We’re going to be at over 60 million, so we have done a tremendous job in testing considering we started off with very little. It was an unknown disease, and it was an unknown test.”

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany had repeated the same statement and had said that the US is leading COVID-19 testing with 59 million tests, with India at number two with “just about 14 million tests.”

According to ICMR data, India has conducted more than 19 million tests so far. The statement comes at a time when President Trump is being criticised widely for his failure to combat the spread of coronavirus. The US continues to be the worst-hit country with over 4.64 million confirmed COVID-19 cases and more than 156,000 deaths.