Trump says coronavirus has ‘passed peak’ as US could reopen in coming weeks

As an amended New York death toll passed 10,000 on Wednesday, president Trump suggested some states could reopen soon

Donald Trump has said that the US has “passed the peak” of its coronavirus pandemic and proposed some states could reopen in the coming weeks.

"We'll be the comeback kids, all of us," said Mr Trump on Wednesday. "We want to get our country back."

The US has seen more cases and deaths than any nation worldwide, with almost 640,000 confirmed cases of the coronavirus and over 31,000 deaths.

But on Wednesday the president announced that the White House was “in a strong position to finalise guidelines for states reopening” based on unspecified data.

Speaking at the White House news briefing, the president said: “While we must remain vigilant, it is clear that our aggressive strategy is working.”

“We’re going to be announcing guidelines and we’ll be talking about various states and it’s very exciting.”

Mr Trump pointed to the decline in new cases in New York, where state governor Andrew Cuomo announced on Monday that “the worst is over”.

That comes as an amended New York death toll on Wednesday increased the number of fatalities by 60 per cent, to more than 10,000.

"The data suggests that nationwide, we have passed the peak of new cases,” assured president Trump at the White House. “Hopefully that will continue, and we will continue to make great progress."

Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, appeared to caution against a sudden end to social distancing guidelines.

“To all of you that are out there that would like to join together and just have that dinner party for 20, don’t do it yet. Continue to follow the presidential guidelines,” Dr. Birx said.

She added that nine states have less than 1,000 cases each and were reporting less than 30 new cases per day.

Meanwhile, state governors on the east and west coasts of the US announced on Monday that they had begun considering how to coordinate an end to shutdown measures.

State governors had pushed back at Mr Trump’s suggestion on Monday that he had “total authority” over them.