Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Tuesday said the federal government has been “more of a hindrance than a help” for his state when it comes to most coronavirus testing issues.
Mr. Pritzker said Abbott Laboratories has been a big player in Illinois and has done good work on developing rapid testing.
“The challenge for them is the federal government has stepped in, as they have in all other matters of supply chain, and essentially moved the machines around to other places across the nation,” Mr. Pritzker said on NPR.
“We’ve gotten some of them, so I’m glad of that, but the truth is that the federal government has really been more of a hindrance than a help in most of the testing issues,” he said.
Mr. Pritzker said in Illinois, they’ve ended up just developing their own testing capabilities but that they still don’t have all the tests they need.
“We’re now up to almost 8,000 a day — we need to get past 10,000 and frankly we’re going to need a lot more than that if we’re going to think about how we reopen the economy,” he said.
Mr. Pritzker also said presidential instructions on when to reopen the economy would constitute an “advisory opinion,” despite President Trump’s contention that he has the final say on when states open back up.
