Trump says large-scale coronavirus testing ready to go

Under fire for a poor response to coronavirus, U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday said his administration is now ready to start mass public testing.

"The changes have been made and testing will soon happen on a very large scale basis. All Red Tape has been cut, ready to go!" he tweeted following criticism over a testing kit shortage and a tepid response to his attempts to reassure the public.

Trying to pass the buck, Trump sought to blame the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the nation's leading public health institution, for failing to tackle the testing kit problem over the years.

"For decades the @CDCgov looked at, and studied, its testing system, but did nothing about it. It would always be inadequate and slow for a large scale pandemic, but a pandemic would never happen, they hoped," Trump said.

Trump then turned to one of his favorite targets, former President Barack Obama, accusing him of exacerbating the situation.

"President Obama made changes that only complicated things further. Their response to H1N1 Swine Flu was a full scale disaster, with thousands dying, and nothing meaningful done to fix the testing problem, until now," he said.

The Trump administration has been blasted for the unavailability of test kits, with several states saying federal authorities should allow them to develop their own test kits.

Almost 30 U.S. states have declared a state of emergency due to the outbreak, which nationally has killed 37 and infected over 1,700.

So far, almost every state has at least one reported case.

Globally, the death toll is now over 4,900, with more than 134,000 confirmed cases, according to the World Health Organization (WHO), which has declared the outbreak a pandemic.