President Donald Trump speaks about the coronavirus in the James Brady Press Briefing Room of the White House, (Picture: AP)

Donald Trump claimed China was ‘number one’ in coronavirus deaths despite reported totals coming from the both countries.

Trump made the assertion at his coronavirus press briefing Saturday and said China, which has reported 4,632 coronavirus deaths, actually has more fatalities because of the virus than the US, which has reported 38,779 deaths as of Saturday.

‘We’re not number one. China’s number one. Just so you understand,’ the president said.

‘China’s number one by a lot. It’s not even close. They are way ahead of us in terms of deaths. It’s not even close. You know it. I know it. They know it. But you don’t want to report it. Why? You’ll have to explain that. Someday I’ll explain it.’




Trump’s claims came right after he began his briefing by saying the US has ‘has produced better health outcomes than any other country, with the possible exception of Germany.’

The US has the most coronavirus deaths in the world, but Trump begins the April 18 #TrumpPressConf by claiming America “has produced better health outcomes than any other country, with the possible exception of Germany.” pic.twitter.com/puRZgsvIeh — Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 18, 2020

He later hit out at China again for not ‘stopping’ the virus during the initial stages of the outbreak.

‘I could have been stopped in China. It could have been stopped in China, but it wasn’t and the whole world is suffering from it.’

Trump’s attack on China on Saturday was his most direct insinuation that China lied about how many deaths it suffered from the coronavirus outbreak which began in Wuhan. It follows a week that saw Trump repeatedly hit out at China’s transparency regarding the outbreak.

At Wednesday’s press briefing Trump made a similar accusation – but he did not go as far as saying China had more deaths than the US – after a reporter asked why the United States has 24 percent of the world’s coronavirus deaths, but only four percent of the global population. On Wednesday, the US coronavirus death toll was reported to be 28,443. The world’s coronavirus death toll is just over 134, 200.

‘Do you think you’re getting honest numbers from some of those countries… Do you really believe those numbers from this vast country called China? And that they have a certain number of cases and a certain number of deaths. does anyone really believe that,’ Trump said.

‘Our reporting is really good and we are reporting every death…We have more cases because we do more reporting… Does anyone really believe the numbers of some of these countries you’ve been watching and reporting on.’

‘And then it’s like, they didn’t have the big thing. There have been some really, really bad…really some countries that are in big, big trouble and they’re not reporting the facts and that’s up to them,’ Trump continued.

classified report was leaked from the White House on Wednesday that accused China’s government of under-reporting both its total cases of coronavirus and the death toll from the outbreak. The White House officials, who chose not to be identified, told Bloomberg that China’s public record of Covid-19 cases is intentionally ‘incomplete.’



Despite reports coming from China, rumors have come from locals that the country has actually suffered 42,000 deaths, although the claims have not been confirmed.

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