Sen. Lindsey Graham Lindsey Olin GrahamMomentum growing among Republicans for Supreme Court vote before Election Day Video of Lindsey Graham arguing against nominating a Supreme Court justice in an election year goes viral Warning signs flash for Lindsey Graham in South Carolina MORE (R-S.C.) said Thursday that Americans “really can’t” return to work “until we have more tests.”

Graham told ABC’s “The View” that “the key” to improving the country's response to the pandemic is increasing testing capacity.

“I can’t really blame the president, but we are struggling with testing at a large scale. You really can’t go back to work until we have more tests,” he said.

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Sen. Lindsey Graham says “the key to me is testing” for COVID-19: “I can’t really blame the president, but we are struggling with testing at a large scale. You really can’t go back to work until we have more tests.” https://t.co/f8u2wbJuik pic.twitter.com/7GusfqQiPL — The View (@TheView) April 16, 2020

The senator's remarks come as political leaders across the United States debate reopening the economy during the pandemic.

The South Carolina senator said he thinks President Trump Donald John TrumpUS reimposes UN sanctions on Iran amid increasing tensions Jeff Flake: Republicans 'should hold the same position' on SCOTUS vacancy as 2016 Trump supporters chant 'Fill that seat' at North Carolina rally MORE has “done a good job,” citing his bans on travel from China and Europe and Trump's declaration of a national emergency.

Graham said he blames China for the pandemic saying that it “lied to the world about the nature of the virus. We lost a lot of time.”

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He also called for a change in leadership at the World Health Organization (WHO) saying that the international body “conspired with China to downplay” the virus.

“The WHO has great scientists, but ... I’ve lost confidence in the leadership,” the senator said.

Sen. Lindsey Graham calls for a change of leadership within the World Health Organization because he believes “they conspired with China to downplay the nature of the virus.”



“The WHO has great scientists, but... I’ve lost confidence in the leadership.” https://t.co/DWeVJkDQFX pic.twitter.com/cEa74zby99 — The View (@TheView) April 16, 2020

Graham’s comments come just days after Trump announced he would withhold funding from WHO until its management of the pandemic is investigated.

The U.S. has struggled to keep up with testing, with critics of the government's response saying the country moved slower than others to test its residents, allowing the virus to spread. Those who are asymptomatic would not know they have the virus unless tested and could spread it to others.

A total of more than 3.2 million people have been tested in the U.S., just short of 1 percent of the population, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.