Trump Says U.S. And China Working ‘Closely’ To Defeat Coronavirus As U.S. Sees Most Cases In The World

Topline: In a major turnaround, President Donald Trump announced the U.S. is working “closely”  with China after a phone call with Premier Xi Jinping, just hours after the U.S. overtook China with the most number of COVID-19 cases in the world, to date.

• Trump tweeted in the early hours of Friday: “Just finished a very good conversation with President Xi of China. Discussed in great detail the CoronaVirus that is ravaging large parts of our Planet. 
• “China has been through much & has developed a strong understanding of the Virus. We are working closely together. Much respect!” he added.

• Trump’s statement comes as the U.S., with 86,000 confirmed cases, officially overtook China’s 81,700 cases to become the country with the most number of confirmed coronavirus infections to date. 
• The U.S. still has a lower number of deaths (1,300) compared with China’s 3,100 and Italy’s 8,200, but the new figures demonstrate the U.S. faces becoming the global centre of the pandemic. 
• China’s Xi pledged China’s support to the U.S. during the phone call, and, according to China’s Foreign Affairs Ministry, stressed China’s transparency in dealing with the virus.
• Trump has previously sought to pin blame on China for the virus and purposely called it the ‘Chinese Virus’, drawing criticisms of racism before he abruptly stopped his use of the term in a bid to protect the Asian-American community, and after warnings from the World Health Organization.

Key background: The coronavirus was first detected in Wuhan, China, late last year and has since ballooned into a global pandemic that has spread to 199 countries, according to the World Health Organization, More than 530,000 people have contracted the disease to date, data from Johns Hopkins University shows. Strict lockdowns across China saw tens of millions people stuck in their homes, with transport links largely cut off to stop the spread of the virus, and this week those restrictions have gradually lifted. 

As the disease rapidly spread across the world, including other parts of Asia, the Middle East, Europe and North America, similar lockdowns have been enforced in some, but not all, of the worst hot spots, including Italy, Spain, France, and now several states across the U.S.

Tangent: China is now moving to prevent a potential second wave of coronavirus triggered by overseas visitors to the country. From Saturday, it will temporarily ban foreign nationals or those with resident visas from entering the country, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said. China has in recent days reported a spike in “imported” cases of COVID-19, data from its National Health Commission shows.

Further reading: U.S. Now Has Highest Number Of Coronavirus Cases In The World (Carlie Porterfield)