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Donald Trump has sought to play down the threat from coronavirus despite mounting concerns about unchecked worldwide contagion, as Australia’s prime minister launched an emergency plan and said that the risk of a pandemic was “very much upon us”.
In a press conference in Washington, the US president said the danger to Americans “remains very low” and predicted that the number of cases diagnosed in the country, currently on 15, could fall to zero in a “few days”.
“We have had tremendous success, tremendous success, beyond what people would have thought. At the same time, you do have some outbreaks in some countries – Italy and various countries are having some difficulties,” he said, in remarks that appeared to be contradicted by officials from his own administration at the same media briefing.
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The president also said that stock markets, which have seen substantial falls in recent days because of worries about the global economic impact of the virus, would recover, even attempting to blame the Democratic leadership debate for the losses on Wall Street.