Trump claims coronavirus numbers 'are going down almost everywhere.' That's not the case.

(Image credit: MANDEL NGAN/AFP via Getty Images)

published 11 May 2020

As the United States nears 80,000 COVID-19 deaths, President Trump enthusiastically claimed Monday that things are looking "much better" in terms of the coronavirus pandemic, with "numbers" — presumably new infections, deaths, and hospitalizations — improving across the board.

In reality, that's not the case. While the U.S. has made some progress overall, and increases in confirmed infections can be attributed in part to an increase in testing, there are many places across the country that are actually on an upward trajectory. California, for example, has seen cases and deaths rise, and researchers are now concerned the virus' toll in the Golden State will be worse than originally predicted.

When the New York area, the U.S. epicenter which has shown sustained improvement, is removed from the equation, hospitalizations and deaths continue to rise nationally.

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And, of course, the virus has infected people who work at the White House, though Trump doesn't seem perturbed by the development. Tim O'Donnell

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Tim is a staff writer at The Week and has contributed to Bedford and Bowery and The New York Transatlantic. He is a graduate of Occidental College and NYU's journalism school. Tim enjoys writing about baseball, Europe, and extinct megafauna. He lives in New York City.