USA / I hope COVID-19 will just sort of disappear at some point: Trump

Business Insider : Jul 02, 2020, 06:08 PM
Washington: President Donald Trump still believes that coronavirus will "just disappear" at some point, even as the US creeps toward 130,000 confirmed deaths from the virus and cases continue to rise at an alarming rate.

Meanwhile, the US is recording roughly 40,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, with the overall confirmed number of cases in the country nearing 2.7 million. More than 48,000 cases were reported across the US on Tuesday alone, marking a new single-day high since the pandemic began. States across the country are also recording record numbers of new cases, and a number have instituted or reinstituted restrictions to quell the spread.

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top expert on infectious disease, on Tuesday said he's "very concerned" by the current situation and warned the US could soon seen 100,000 cases per day.

"We are now having forty-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. And so I am very concerned," Fauci said in sworn testimony before a Senate committee. "If you look at what's going on, and just look at some of the film clips that we've seen of people congregating — often without masks, of being in crowds, jumping over and avoiding paying attention to the guidelines that we've carefully put out — we are going to continue to be in a lot of trouble, and there's going to be a lot of hurt if that does not stop."

Wednesday was not the first time Trump suggested the virus would suddenly go away someday.

"It's going to disappear. One day, it's like a miracle, it will disappear," Trump said on February 27.

"And it will go away. Just stay calm. It will go away," Trump said on March 10. The US has the highest number of reported coronavirus cases and confirmed fatalities in the world.

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