US Congress declines Trump's offer of COVID-19 testing at Capitol Hill

Congress Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell have jointly rejected the offer by US President Donald Trump’s administration for testing all lawmakers of coronavirus at the Capitol Hill. Amid the global health crisis, while Pelosi and McConnell think it is best if the resources that the United States has, shall be diverted to front-line facilities, Trump sees “no reason” to decline the offer. However, US President thinks it would give “Crazy Pelosi” yet another chance to not be present for work. The joint statement by both Pelosi and McConnell was issued on May 2 saying that the testing should remain available where it “can do most good the most quickly”. 

The official statement read, “Congress is grateful for the Administration’s generous offer to deploy rapid COVID-19 testing capabilities to Capitol Hill, but we respectfully decline the offer at this time.”

“Our country’s testing capacities are continuing to scale up nationwide and Congress wants to keep directing resources to the front-line facilities where they can do the most good the most quickly,” it added.

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US authorises emergency use of Ebola drug

Meanwhile, the Secretary of US Department of Health and Human Services, Alex Azar said that approval of the emergency use of the antiviral drug, previously used for Ebola infection, remdesivir is a 'significant step' for treating patients of coronavirus with severe symptoms. It came after a couple of days after the National Institutes of Health’s clinical trial showed positive results of the drug on COVID-19 patients. According to him, it is a prominent example of how US President Donald trump’s administration is fast-tracking its road to recovery from the global health crisis by using “science to save lives”. Azar also lauded the people working in different US government agencies who have been working “tirelessly” to find potential treatment of the highly contagious disease. 

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