According to the latest figures collated by Johns Hopkins University, the United States has overtaken China (81,782 cases) and Italy (80,589 cases). But with almost 1,300 Covid-19-related fatalities, the United States death toll lags behind China (3,291) and Italy (8,215).
The grim milestone came as President Donald Trump predicted the nation would get back to work “pretty quickly”. While asking about the latest figures at a White House briefing on Thursday afternoon, President Trump said that it was “a tribute to the amount of testing that they were doing.
Vice-President Mike Pence said that coronavirus tests were now available in all 50 states and more than 552,000 tests had been conducted nationwide. Donald Trump also cast doubt on the figures coming out of Beijing telling that they do not know what the numbers are in China.
But later, he tweeted that he had had a “very good conversation” with China’s President Xi Jinping. China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!” President Trump said.
Donald Trump has set a much-criticised goal of Easter Sunday, 12 April, for reopening the country. That plan seemed to gather impetus on Thursday as it emerged an unprecedented 3.3 million Americans have been laid off because of the virus.
At Thursday’s briefing, he said that the American people have to go back to work, the country has to go back, the country is based on that and he think it is going to happen pretty quickly. They may take sections of our country, they may take large sections of country that aren’t so seriously affected and they may do it that way.
He added that a lot of people misinterpret when he say go back – they’re going to be practising as much as they can do social distancing, and washing their hands and not shaking hands and all of the things they talked about.
He promised more details next week.
