US President Donald Trump on Monday addressed reporters at The White House and spoke about his administration's COVID-19 response in comparison to other big countries saying America is doing "very well". He went on to say India is at present having a "tremendous problem" combating the disease, while China is witnessing a "massive flare up" in the number of coronavirus infections. 

There were 52,050 fresh coronavirus cases recorded in India on Tuesday taking the country's tally to 18,55,745, while China today reported 36 new cases across the country, down from 43 the previous day. The country's COVID-19 cases crossed the 100-mark for the first time in over three months on July 29, leading to a fear of a new wave of infections. 

Speaking to reporters at a news conference on Monday, President Trump said, "I think we're doing very well. I think that we have done as well as any nation. If you really look, if you take a look at what's going on, especially now with all these flare ups and nations that they were talking about,". 

Addressing the administration's response to the pandemic in comparison to other nations, Trump said the US is doing much better in tackling the spread of the virus. "Don't forget, we're much bigger than - other than India and China. China is having a massive flare up right now. India has a tremendous problem. Other countries have problems," he answered to a query.

He further added, "And I noticed that in the news, in the evening news, I never read about that. In any news, I don't read about the other countries. You're starting to see that other countries are having very big flare ups, countries that thought they were over it, like we thought we might be over in Florida, and then all of a sudden it comes back. They do come back,".

The US has been the worst-affected nation on the planet due to the pandemic with over 4.7 million cases and more than 155,000 deaths. Over 60 million people have so far been tested for coronavirus in the US, Donald Trump said. "No other country is even close to that. We've tested 60 million people - in many cases about 50 percent, now rapid fire, meaning five to 15 to 20-minute tests where you get the results almost immediately. Nobody has anything like that. Nobody. And I think we're just doing very well," he stated.

Trump then stated the US has begun witnessing evidence of notable progress as the number of positive COVID-19 cases around the country has been on a decline by nearly six percent from the week before. He also added that the positive test rate as well has come down from 8.7 per cent to 8 per cent during that period of time. "Hotspots across the South and West; we have seen slow improvements from their recent weekly peaks," he said. He also went on to shed light on the weekly case count dropping in Arizona to 37 percent, while commending the governor and the state for their accomplishment. 

He also said, "As we begin to contain the virus in these states, we must focus on new flare ups in the states where the case numbers have risen, including Georgia, Mississippi, Tennessee, Oklahoma, Missouri, and I think you will find that they are soon going to be very much under control,". Trump also pointed out low coronavirus cases being recorded in 18 states along with low test positivity rates under five percent, which also include New Jersey, New York, Alaska, Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Maine, Maryland and Massachusetts. 

He urged Americans to be cautious and remain vigilant in order to prevent any new hotspots from opening up even if the virus is under control and at a very low number in these states. "To that end, I urge all Americans to continue to socially distance, wash your hands, wear a mask when you cannot avoid crowded places and to protect the elderly very, very important, protect the elderly. It is much different....," Donald Trump said. He continued, "As we are seeing in foreign countries around the world where cases are once again surging, you have many places where we thought they were under control doing a great job, and they are doing a great job, but this is a very tough invisible enemy. Lockdowns do not prevent infection in the future. They just don't. It comes back many times...,".

President Trump also further stated that the lockdown has been imposed in order to buy time to build capacity in hospitals, which will allow them to learn more about the disease and subsequently develop new effective treatments. "We are doing very well with the vaccines and the therapeutic. Countries, where there have been very significant flare ups over the last short period of time, are Spain, Germany, France, Australia, Japan, and also, as you probably heard in Hong Kong, they have had some very serious flare ups. Japan has gone a lot of--six-fold, six-fold flareup, that's a lot, but they will get it under control," he asserted.

"In our current phase, we must focus on protecting those at highest risk while allowing younger and healthier Americans to resume work and school with careful precautions. Ideally, we want to open those schools. We want to open them", Donald Trump stated. He then said, "At the same time, we are placing an emphasis on continuing to drive down the mortality rate with improved care, treatment, and medical interventions building a bridge to the introduction of a vaccine. The vaccines are coming along incredibly well,".