Donald Trump told thousands of supporters on Saturday that he had asked US officials to slow down testing for Covid-19 because case numbers in the country were rising so rapidly.
Speaking at a campaign rally in Tulsa, Oklahoma, the US president used racist language, referring to Covid-19 as “kung influenza”, and described testing for the virus as a “twofold edged sword” because it prompted the identification of more cases.
The US had now tested 25 million individuals, far more than other countries, Trump said, adding: “When you do testing to that extent, you’re gonna find more individuals, you’re gonna find more cases. So I said to my kin slow the testing down.”
A White House official later told Reuters that Trump was joking.
Across the US, in excess of 119,654 individuals are affirmed to have been murdered by Covid-19, according to Johns Hopkins University. It remains the country worst hit by coronavirus, trailed by Brazil, which currently has in excess of a million cases, and Russia, which has 576,162 infections.
Trump said the “radical fake news” media had not given him credit for doing what he called “a phenomenal activity” of responding to the outbreak.
The campaign rally in Tulsa went ahead despite warnings from health officials that it risked fuelling a spike in coronavirus cases. The group was smaller than expected, with many empty sections in the 19,000-seat arena, but scarcely any attendees wore masks.
Globally, 8,753,853 coronavirus cases have now been recorded and 463,281 fatalities affirmed, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The death toll in Chile rose especially sharply on Saturday, almost doubling to more than 7,000, after the government adjusted its data to include deaths that are probably linked to Covid-19. Official figures show there have been 236,748 infections in the country so far.
Meanwhile, several countries have reintroduced social curbs, or are considering doing so, to protect against a second wave of cases.
In Victoria, Australia’s second most populous state, case numbers are the highest they have been in over two months, prompting the Chief Health Officer Brett Sutton to warn: “We are absolutely at risk of a second peak”.
The state has extended its state of crisis for another four weeks and limited the quantity of guests permitted to visit individuals’ homes to five. Plans to relax rules on the quantity of customers allowed in cafes, restaurants and pubs have also been put waiting.
German health officials have also reported a rise in transmission, following clusters of cases linked to meatpacking plants, logistics centers, and evacuee shelters.
Greece has also announced another extension of the coronavirus lockdown on its migrant camps, despite warnings that migrants rights are being undermined by the restrictions.
The Palestinian Authority is among those tightening restrictions, after announcing on Saturday that it would temporarily close the cities of Hebron and Nablus in the involved West Bank, following a sharp rise in infections.
Iranian president Hassan Rouhani said he was considering making it mandatory within days to wear masks out in the open places, after the tally of affirmed coronavirus cases passed 200,000.
The developments follow last week’s warning from the head of the World Health Organization, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, that the world had entered “another and dangerous phase” of the coronavirus pandemic.
“Countries are understandably eager to open up their societies and economies but the virus is still spreading fast, it is still deadly and most individuals are still susceptible,” he said on Friday. “We call on all countries and all individuals to exercise extreme vigilance.”
In other developments:
China reported 26 new affirmed coronavirus cases on Sunday, driven by the outbreak linked to a wholesale food center in the south-west of Beijing.
The Philippines reported 578 new cases of coronavirus on Saturday, a record number. This includes test results that were released to patients in the course of recent days.
Two new Covid-19 cases have been detected in New Zealand, according to the Ministry of Health. One is the offspring of the couple returning from Delhi who were revealed as cases on Saturday, the second is a 59-year-elderly person who also returned from Delhi, but at a later date – on June 15.
Serbians go to polls on Sunday to elect another parliament in Europe’s first national election since coronavirus lockdowns took effect some three months ago.
An Italian collective brought 67 migrants to safety on Saturday, as the first charity rescue ship reached Italian shores since authorities had chosen to close all ports because of the coronavirus pandemic in April.
Reuters and Agence France-Presse contributed to this report.
Altered by NZ Fiji Times
Image source - The Guardian
