Trump claims 'possibly saved 2 million lives', as US Coronavirus death toll at 1.1 lakh

Amidst global backlash over the Trump administration's handling of the Coronavirus, US President Donald Trump, on Friday, claimed that he had 'saved 2 million lives' with the nationwide lockdown, while addressing a press conference, not wearing a face-mask. He added that the US was working with China while calling the virus a 'bad gift from China'. The US, which is the current epicenter of the pandemic has claimed 1,10,472 deaths.

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Trump: 'probably saved  2 million lives'

"We are working with the world and we will work with China too. We will work with everybody. But what happened should have never happened. We have possibly saved 2 million lives," he said.

He added, "COVID-19 is a gift from China. Not good, they should have stopped it at the source. A very bad gift. How come, Wuhan where it started was in very bad trouble, but it did not go to any other parts of China?"

Continuing to rail against China he added, "China has taken tremendous advantage of the United States. We helped rebuild China, we gave them 500 billion dollars a year. How stupid are the people who represented our country with China and many other countries? But that's all changing".

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Trump attacks WHO, slashes funding

 President Trump took to Twitter that the World Health Organisation (WHO) really blew it. Trump who has faced severe criticism for his delayed response to the COVID-19 pandemic, claimed that WHO was very China-centric and slashed the funding to WHO to 10% of its original limit. Moreover, US along with several other countries - including India have voted for a WHO-headed probe into the origins of the Coronavirus and its spread from Wuhan. China has accepted to comply to the probe, but has stated the probe can happen 'after the pandemic is over'.

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Trump and Coronavirus

Trump who had earlier downplayed Coronavirus's effects - terming it a 'Chinese virus', has now called it the 'worst thing to hit the US'. The USA which has overtaken China in the number of positive cases has emerged as the epicenter of the pandemic with     1,931,250 cases, as it begins to open up from its partial lockdown. While initially, Trump claimed to have the country 'up and running by Easter', he extended its social distancing restrictions till April 30. The White House, which has forecasted over 1,00,000- 2,40,00 deaths in the US, claims to have flattened the curve, inspite of its increase in the number of cases.

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