President Trump on Wednesday celebrated a declining case rate in the U.S. by highlighting an uptick in cases in countries, like New Zealand and South Korea, which have fared far better during the pandemic.
“New Zealand, by the way, had a big outbreak,” Mr. Trump said. “Other countries that were held up to try and make us look not as good as we should look, cause we’ve done an incredible job — they’re having a lot of outbreaks and they’ve been able to put them out and we put them out.”
New Zealand reported a dozen new cases on Tuesday, while the U.S. reported nearly 40,000, underscoring the extent of the problem in the U.S. even after controlling relatively wide gulf between the countries’ populations of nearly 5 million and roughly 330 million.
The island nation has reported only 22 deaths, total, while the U.S. has recorded over 170,000.
There has been American progress in fighting the pandemic. The U.S. seven-day rolling average of new coronavirus cases stands at 49,000 per day — down from 58,000 or so two weeks ago, according to a New York Times tracker.
The rate of tests returning positive is down to 6.4%.
“New cases have declined in 80% of the jurisdictions in the past week,” Mr. Trump said.
Mr. Trump said many of the cases continue to occur in older Americans and those with underlying conditions.
South Korea, with a population of nearly 52 million, has reported an uptick in cases, with daily counts reaching triple digits instead of double-digit levels in recent days.
“They just had a very big breakout but they’ll be able to solve the problem,” Mr. Trump said.
The Asian country has reported only 306 deaths.
• Tom Howell Jr. can be reached at thowell@washingtontimes.com.
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