WASHINGTON, August 4. /TASS/. The COVID-19 pandemic is receding in the United States, US President Donald Trump told a press conference at the White House.
"We are beginning to see evidence of significant progress nationwide," Trump said. The number of positive coronavirus tests dropped nearly 6% compared with last week and the share of positive tests also decreased from 8.7% to 8% during this period, he said. "An encouraging sign, very encouraging, I have to add, that the virus is receding."
According to Trump, the US authorities also expect that the COVID-19 vaccine will be available to the public "far in advance of the end of the year."
In late December 2019, Chinese officials informed the World Health Organization (WHO) about the outbreak of a previously unknown pneumonia in the city of Wuhan, in central China. Since then, cases of the novel coronavirus - named COVID-19 by the WHO - have been reported in every corner of the globe, including Russia. On March 11, 2020, the WHO declared the coronavirus outbreak a pandemic.
According to the Johns Hopkins University, which calculates its own statistics on the basis of data obtained from international organizations, federal and local authorities, more than 4.71 mln COVID-19 cases were registered in the US and 155,379 people died.