Trump claims Covid-19 will ‘run its course’ as US nears 215,000 deaths

The US death toll currently stands at 214,776, with 7.7million confirmed cases

Donald Trump has told the United States that Covid-19 “will run its course”, as the country’s death toll approaches 215,000.

With the US accounting for well over a fifth of all deaths worldwide, the president’s comments on Monday morning jarred.

Mr Trump appeared buoyed by news that the virus was resurgent in Europe.

“Big spike in the China Plague in Europe and other places that the Fake News used to hold up as examples of places that are doing well, in order to make the U.S look bad,” he tweeted. 

“Be strong and vigilant, it will run its course. Vaccines and cures are coming fast!”

The US death toll currently stands at 214,776, with 7.7million confirmed cases, according to John Hopkins University.

Europe is indeed seeing a surge in cases but even so, their data still makes the United States “look bad”.

Spain has had the highest number of cases in Europe so far and last week registered another 57,247.

The UK on Monday is bracing for a series of new “three tier” lockdown rules to be announced, and more people are now in hospital with Covid than before restrictions were announced in March.

In France, around 18,000 new cases are being detected each day at the moment; bars, gyms and swimming pools in Paris and five other large cities have been closed. The number of cases is 116 per 100,000 people and also rising. 

In Germany, the new daily case rate is around 5,000 - the country’s highest since April, but still low compared to the rest of Europe.

Yet all of Europe, except Spain, has fared better than the US in terms of the per capita death rate, as documented by John Hopkins University.

The US, despite spending more per capita on healthcare than any other country in the developed world, and three times the OECD average, has the sixth worst death rate.

Peru is the worst, followed by Brazil, Ecuador, Spain and Mexico.

And the United States also does “look bad” in terms of rising case loads.

John Hopkins University’s data, updated on Sunday, showed that in the previous 24 hours cases were sharply rising across swathes of the midwest. 

Previous hotspots of Florida and Texas were faring better, but North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Nebraska and Wisconsin were causing concern.