United States President Donald Trump on Monday said his country was “doing very well” in managing the coronavirus outbreak, while a big country such as India is “having a tremendous problem”, PTI reported. Trump said that China too is witnessing a “massive flare up” in infections.
The United States is the worst-affected country, with over 47.17 lakh cases, including 1.55 lakh deaths reported so far. India, the third-worst affected country, on Tuesday recorded 52,050 new cases, taking the total number of infections to 18,55,745. The toll rose by 803 to 38,938.
“I think we’re doing very well,” Trump told reporters at a news conference. “I think that we have done as well as any nation...Don’t forget, we’re much bigger than India and China. China is having a massive flare up right now. India has a tremendous problem. Other countries have problems.”
The president complained that news channels in the United States don’t give coverage to the country’s positive handling of the pandemic as compared to other countries. “In any news, I don’t read about the other countries,” he said. “You’re starting to see that other countries are having very big flare ups – countries that thought they were over it [the Covid-19 outbreak] – like we thought we might be over in Florida, and then all of a sudden it comes back.”
Trump was referring to China, which on Tuesday reported 36 new cases across the country, down from 43 the previous day. On July 29, the country recorded over 100 cases for the first time in over three months, sparking fears of a rebound.
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The United States has tested over 60 million (6 crore) people for the coronavirus so far, Trump said. “No other country is even close to that,” he added. “We’ve tested 60 million people – in many cases about 50%, now rapid fire, meaning 15 to 20-minute tests where you get the results almost immediately. Nobody has anything like that. Nobody. And I think we’re just doing very well.”
The president said that positive cases in the US have declined by nearly 6% from the week before, while the positive test rate has also dropped from 8.7% to 8% over the same period.
“[In] hotspots across the south and west [of America]; we have seen slow improvements from their recent weekly peaks,” he said. Trump said that Arizona’s weekly case count has dropped 37% , Texas has seen a decline of 18.7%, while in Florida too, cases registered a 21.2% drop.
“As we begin to contain the virus in these states, we must focus on new flare ups in the states where the case numbers have risen, including Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, and I think you will find that they are soon going to be very much under control,” he added.
Trump said the US is also “doing very well” with the vaccines and therapeutic care, but urged Americans to diligently follow norms of physical distancing and practice hand washing. He also asked them wear masks in public places and “protect the elderly”.
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