Spanish prime minister fails to prove existence of international coronavirus testing rankings he cited

In a press conference on April 28, Sánchez said the university’s rankings showed Spain was fifth in the world in testing rates. But those international rankings appear not to exist. In April, CNN followed up with Johns Hopkins University to verify the rankings, but a spokesperson said, “We weren’t able to immediately locate such a report.”When CNN asked if Johns Hopkins was tracking testing data outside the United States, the spokesperson said, “We have elaborate US testing tracking efforts, including state comparisons, right now.”On its coronavirus website, Johns Hopkins maps Covid-19 infections and deaths around the world and appears to only be tracking testing rates in the US. In April, CNN asked the Spanish Health Ministry to send a link or proof that the rankings existed. They did not reply. CNN informed Sánchez during Saturday’s press conference that Johns Hopkins was unable to locate such rankings and that the Health Ministry hadn’t responded. Asked if his office could point to the rankings he had referred to, Sanchez said only that “The numbers are there.” He then went on to read out the government’s latest testing data.When CNN first asked Sánchez about testing rates on April 28, the prime minister cited contested Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) data showing Spain was eighth in the world for testing rates. But even before Sánchez answered the question, the OECD had issued a statement correcting its data, after acknowledging it had mistakenly included Spain’s antibody testing rates in the overall numbers, which skewed its position. The updated OECD chart at the time showed Spain had the 17th highest testing rate, not the eighth, for Covid-19. The Spanish prime minister and his government have been accused by opposition parties and criticized by some of the country’s leading media of manipulating Spain’s test ranking figures.On Saturday, Sanchez said that as of May 7, Spain had completed 1,625,211 PCR tests, and 842,550 antibody tests. “We are one of the countries doing the most testing,” he said.