Tony's Diary Package — page 724

The share of daily COVID-19 tests that are positive Shown is the rolling 7-day average. The number of confirmed cases divided by the number of tests, expressed as a percentage. Tests may refer to the number of tests performed or the number of people tested - depending on which is reported by the particular country. Cunear ] toc 30% 25% 20% 15% 10% 5% United States --- Israel 0% United Kingdom Mar 1,2020 Apr 30,2020 Jun19,2020 Aug 8, 2020 Sep 27,2020 Jan5,2021 Feb 24,2021 Apr 29, 2021 Jeff called me this morning and said that it would be best for them to arrange for me to speak one on one with the president over the next couple of days concerning the India issue . I believe that this is the best way to go. • regarding the situation at the Texas-Mexico border. The congressman has an interesting problem and an issue. Apparently, people coming from Mexico to the United states who are holding valid visas are not being allowed to come in through land crossings. Most of these people are poor and cannot afford to fly in. However, the wealthier people who can fly into the United states but who are required to have a test before they get on the plane are allowed to come in. This becomes an economic issue for the border towns in the United states such as Laredo. Visa-carrying Mexicans spend about $19 billion per year in the border towns. It becomes a serious economic issue if they are not allowed in. The congressman wants my help since Homeland Security says that this is a medical issue and the congressman points out that it is not a medical issue; but it is an economic issue. I explained to the congressman that I believe that Homeland Security thinks it is a medical issue because the people who come over on land crossings do not have testing readily available to them and so given the possibility that some of them are infected, Homeland Security considers this a medical issue. My suggestion for a solution is to figure out a way to get the United States side of the border to provide rapid testing for the visaholding Mexicans as they enter the country , and if they are negative, they are allowed to enter. I promised to check with the medical adviser to Homeland Security to see if we can straighten this out. I will have our staffs connect us. • Two countries that have done things differently from us - UK and Israel. They both locked down completely until their number started to come down sharoply and then they ramped up vaccinations and now their test positivity is 0.1%. See the results below: