WASHINGTON A day after President Donald Trump retreated again to his comfort zone of banning foreigners from the country, his administration still cannot explain the ongoing inability to test large numbers of Americans for coronavirus or share whether there is a plan to address a potential shortage of acute-care hospital beds.

Were in great shape. Compared to other places, we are in really good shape, and we want to keep it that way. Thats why I did the ban with respect to Europe, Trump said during a White House photo opportunity with the visiting prime minister of Ireland, the day after imposing a 30-day ban on most Europeans entering the United States.

But neither Trump nor his top administration officials addressed the continuing difficulty Americans around the country face in getting a test for the coronavirus. Nor was there discussion about what happens if the number of serious cases spikes as happened in China, Iran and Italy and outstrips the number of intensive-care beds available.

Indeed, on Capitol Hill, the widely respected head of the infectious diseases program at the National Institutes of Health conceded that coronavirus testing has been a failure.

This is a failing. It is a failing. Lets admit it, Anthony Fauci told members of the House Oversight Committee. The idea of anybody getting it easily the way people in other countries are doing it, were not set up for that. Do I think we should be? Yes. But were not.