America’s 15 lakh coronavirus cases is a ‘badge of honour’, says US President Trump

New Delhi: US President Donald Trump has sparked off fresh controversy with his statement on Coronavirus. Trump said that US having more than 15 lakh cases of coronavirus – the highest number of infections globally, is “a badge of honor”.

“I view it as a badge of honor, really, it’s a badge of honor. It’s a great tribute to the testing and all of the work that a lot of professionals have done,” Trump told reporters during a cabinet meeting at the White House.

The US has 1.5 million confirmed coronavirus cases and over 91,000 deaths, both the world’s highest.

“You know when you say that we lead in cases, that’s because we have more testing than anybody else. So when we have a lot of cases, I don’t look at that as a bad thing, I look at that as, in a certain respect, as being a good thing because it means our testing is much better,” Trump told reporters.

Trump was responding to a question about whether he was considering a travel ban on Latin America, Brazil in particular. Brazil has the third highest number of confirmed cases, following the US and Russia.

Till now, US has conducted 12.6 million coronavirus tests.

Trump’s previous controversial statements

At a daily news briefing, Trump had said that scientists should explore whether inserting ultraviolet light or disinfectant into the bodies of people infected with coronavirus might help them clear the disease.

“Is there a way we can do something like that by injection, inside, or almost a cleaning?” Trump asked. “It would be interesting to check that.”

Later, he clarified that he was being sarcastic when he made the comments.

In another instance, Trump also promoted an anti-malaria drug called hydroxychloroquine to treat people with COVID-19.

This had triggered streams of reactions on Twitter, with many deriding him for the statement.