99% Covid-19 cases ‘totally harmless’, says Donald Trump

President Donald Trump has claimed without evidence that 99% of Covid-19 cases in the country were “totally harmless,” as the 4th of July weekend to mark US Independence Day added to worries of further spread of the pandemic.

Many states broke records in new cases. In Texas, for instance, 7,890 patients were hospitalised. Florida has reported a new record of 11,445 cases.

Trump once again blamed China for the pandemic and held out hopes of a vaccine by the end of the year. He held the 4th of July celebrations against warnings that the virus is spreading through such large gatherings. Deaths in the US were nearing 130,000 on Sunday as cases topped 2.8 million, with more than 45,000 in the past 24 hours.

“China must be held fully accountable”, Trump said, blaming Beijing for misreporting and misleading the world, while claiming again that the high number of cases in the US was due to more testing.

“Now we have tested, almost 40 mn people, 99% of which are harmless”, he said.

The president went on to hold hopes of a breakthrough in the hunt of a vaccine, saying, “We’ll likely have a therapeutic and a vaccine solution long before the end of the year.”

Trump said China must be held fully accountable for its “secrecy, deception and cover-up” that allowed it to spread the coronavirus all over the world. He touted the country’s “progress” against the pandemic saying, “We have the manufacturing record for ventilators. We have the most and the finest testing anywhere in the world.”

“We are producing gowns, masks, and surgical equipment in our country. It was almost exclusively made in foreign lands, in particular, China, where ironically this virus and others came from.

“China’s secrecy, deception, and cover-up allowed it to spread all over the world; 189 countries and China must be held fully accountable.”