Trump touts U.S. coronavirus testing: 'We've tested more than all countries put together'

President Trump on Wednesday touted the U.S. coronavirus testing infrastructure, which was rapidly built in the wake of the global pandemic.

"We had old-fashioned tests that didn't work, they were really obsolete, they didn't work, they were broken," Trump said at a White House meeting with business executives discussing rebuilding the economy after the coronavirus. "The testing has been incredible now, to a level that nobody's seen ... We've tested more than all countries put together."

Trump has invoked the Defense Production Act to expand coronavirus testing technologies. The administration is reporting that the United States is now performing more than 200,000 tests a day and has completed 5.4 million tests so far.

In hotspots like New York City, the White House reported, the United States has conducted several times more tests per capita than South Korea. 

Trump said Wednesday he received a call from South Korean President Moon Jae-in of South Korea congratulating him on the United States' testing capabilities.

A Yahoo White House reporter apologized to the president Tuesday after incorrectly claiming that South Korea had performed five times more coronavirus tests per capita than the U.S. 

Dr. Deborah Birx, the Coronavirus Response Coordinator for the Trump Administration's White House Coronavirus Task Force, corrected the Yahoo reporter, noting that the United States has tested about 17 people for every 100,000 people, compared to 11 tests per 100,000 in South Korea.

On Monday, the administration announced the expansion of public-private partnerships to expand testing capacity, develop new tests, and get tests to the frontlines as soon as possible.

Executives from Walmart, Walgreens, CVS, Rite Aid and Kroger joined the White House Coronavirus Task Force in the White House Rose Garden to announce new details about the public-private testing partnership.