"China had far more deaths than we did, in my opinion. It's just my opinion, but they don't report their deaths, or they don't report them accurately ... there are other countries where the death toll is far higher than the United States," Trump said, also claiming that the US was "rounding the turn" in its COVID-19 outbreak and that Americans need to abide by social distancing and mask-wearing measures during Labor Day weekend.
Trump's claim was in response to a reporter's question about a forecasting model by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington that predicts the US COVID-19 death toll will exceed 410,000 by January 1, 2021.
The latest data by Worldometer shows that almost 6.4 million cases of COVID-19 have been confirmed in the US, and more than 191,000 people have died as a result. In China, however, around 85,000 cases have been reported, and there have been more than 4,600 COVID-19-related deaths in total.
China has largely contained the coronavirus, with students in the city of Wuhan, the original epicenter of the COVID-19 pandemic, returning to class on September 1 as the city reopened all of its schools following a seven-month shutdown.
Wuhan was responsible for around 80% of China’s COVID-19 deaths, according to Reuters.