Donald Trump has said the coronavirus pandemic “will probably get worse before it gets better” as he told Americans to wear masks when they cannot socially distance.

The US president, speaking at a COVID-19 briefing at the White House on Tuesday evening, referred to what he calls the “China virus” as a “vicious and dangerous illness”.

In relation to lockdown measures that were imposed in the country, he said: “We’ve saved potentially millions of lives by doing the initial shutdown but now we’re very aware of this disease, we understand the disease to a large extent, nobody ever is going to fully understand it.

“But we’ll end up with a cure, we’ll end up with therapeutics, we’ll end up with a vaccine very soon.”

Mr Trump also claimed the coronavirus fatality rate in the US is “lower than European Union and almost everywhere else in the world”.

He added: “If you watch American television you’d think the United States was the only country involved with, and suffering from, the China virus.

“Well the world is suffering very badly. But the fact is many countries are suffering very, very, very badly, and they’ve been suffering from this virus for a long time.”

The Republican president went on to encourage Americans to wear masks when social distancing, as he said: “Whether you like the mask or not, they have an impact.”

“I’m getting used to the mask.”

He then pulled one out from his pocket after months of suggesting that mask-wearing was a political statement against him.

It is these sorts of mixed messages that could be a contributing factor to his poor showing in recent opinion polls ahead of November’s presidential election.

His rival – presumptive Democratic nominee Joe Biden – held a 10 percentage point lead as preferred president in a Reuters/Ipsos poll last week.

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