Donald Trump has taken another whip to New Zealand for his ‘major outbreak’ of COVID-19, while praising his own country for doing an ‘incredible job’ in the fight against the deadly virus.
The U.S. president, whose country has the highest number of cases around the world, made the remarks during a news conference at the White House on Wednesday.
‘New Zealand, by the way, had a big outbreak, and other countries that were kept trying to make us not as good as we should look, and we did an incredible job,’ he said.
“They have many outbreaks, but they will be able to postpone them, and we will be able to postpone them.”
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern on Tuesday said Trump’s claim was “patent wrong”
His remarks came when New Zealand recorded six new coronavirus cases on Wednesday, bringing the number of active cases to 96.
The US registered 40,000 new cases on Wednesday.
The country holds the record for most cases with 5.5 million COVID-19 cases and 170,000 deaths.
Trump made a similar sentiment during a campaign rally in Mankato, Minnesota earlier this week.
“The places they used to stop now have a big turnout … they kept names of countries and now they say ” whoops ”, ” he told the crowd.
Two women wear face masks as they walk in Wellington, New Zealand on Saturday (picture)
A police car is seen outside Rydges Rotorua Hotel used to isolate returning travelers (pictured on August 12)
A man with a face mask is seen in downtown Auckland, New Zealand on Wednesday (picture)
‘Do you see what’s going on in New Zealand? They hit it, they hit it, it was like news on the front page because they want to show me something.
‘Great current in New Zealand, you know it’s terrible, we do not want that, but this is an invisible enemy that China should never have let go to get to Europe and the rest of the world.
New Zealand Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern said on Tuesday that Trump’s claim was ‘patent wrong’.
“Of course, I think there is no comparison between the current New Zealand cluster and the tens of thousands of cases that are seen every day in the United States,” Ms Ardern said.
People wearing face masks walk on a street in downtown Auckland, New Zealand (pictured on Wednesday night)
Donald Trump has taken a new whip to New Zealand for his ‘big outbreak’ of COVID-19, while praising his own country for an ‘incredible job’ in the fight against the deadly virus
‘Of course, each country experiences its own battle with COVID-19; it is a troublesome virus, but not one where I would compare the current status of New Zealand with the United States. ‘
The island nation was the envy of the world for its handling of the COVID-19 crisis until new issues appeared on 11 August.
Auckland was brought back in lockdown, as Level Three, to suppress the spread of the virus, after enjoying 102 days without a single case of community transmission.
The rest of New Zealand is placed at Level Two, which has social distance mandates and caps on collective-sized mandates.
During a campaign rally in Mankato, Minnesota on Monday, the president (pictured) proclaimed New Zealand for his ‘big stream’ in COVID-19 cases
The source of the fresh Kiwi outbreak is yet to be determined.
New Zealand and Australian officials are working together on a possible switch via a freight company with stores in Melbourne and Auckland.
New Zealanders had enjoyed the return of their usual freedoms after an autumn strike proved to be effective in temporarily eliminating the deadly virus.
The country’s lockdown has now been extended to August 26.
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