US President Donald Trump, in an uncorroborated claim, said that 99 per cent of COVID-19 cases in the country were “totally harmless”, Hindustan Times reported.

The statement comes days after the US witnessed an unprecedented surge in the infection rate after the July 4 weekend celebration to mark its independence day.

“Now we have tested almost 40 million people, 99% of which are totally harmless”, Trump said as the tally crossed 30,00,000 cases and around 1,30,000 patients succumbed to the deadly contagion.

Many states in the country broke records in new cases. In Texas, 7,890 patients were hospitalised, while Florida reported a new record of 11,445 cases.

In his speech, he also took a dig at China and hoped for a Covid-19 vaccine by the end of this year.

“China must be held fully accountable,” Trump said, blaming Beijing for misreporting and misleading the world. He claimed that the numbers are skyrocketing in the US due to aggressive testing.

Trump had held the July 4 celebrations against warnings that the virus couls spread through such large gatherings.

Appreciating America, he said: We have the most and the finest testing anywhere in the world...We are producing gowns, masks, and surgical equipment in our country…It was almost exclusively made in foreign lands, in particular, China, where ironically this virus and others came from.”

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