Express.co.uk|DONALD Trump has called for US citizens to “go back to work” despite the country now having the most cases of coronavirus worldwide.
The US overtook Italy and China as the global hotspot for the highly contagious disease today.
Cases lept to 82,474 as of Thursday according to NBC’s live tracker.
The surge puts them clear ahead of all other countries.
The latest figures collated by Johns Hopkins University show the shocking surge.
China is currently slowing at 81,285 cases, where as Italy has 80,589.
The milestone comes after President Donald Trump predicted the nation would get back to work by Easter Sunday.
The nations workers have seen nearly 3.3 million layoffs since the pandemic hit.
At a White House briefing on Thursday afternoon, President Trump said that workers need to return to work.
He said: “They have to go back to work, our country has to go back, our country is based on that and I think it’s going to happen pretty quickly.
“We may take sections of our country, we may take large sections of our country that aren’t so seriously affected and we may do it that way.
“A lot of people misinterpret when I say go back, they’re going to be practising as much as you can social distancing, and washing your hands and not shaking hands and all of the things we talked about.”
As news hit the White House of the figures, Trump expressed scepticism about their validity.
He doubts that China’s figures are totally honest, saying: “you don’t know what the numbers are in China.”
Trump said he would be speaking to president Xi Jinpimg by phone to confirm the news of China’s coronavirus plateau.
He also denied that the Chinese leader asked him to stop referring to it as the China virus.
Dr Steve Kasspidis, based in New York told Sky News: “It’s hell, biblical. I kid you not,
“People come in, they get intubated, they die, the cycle repeats. The system is overwhelmed all over the place.
“My daughter is an intern in Brooklyn, first year resident. She starts the ICU today, I couldn’t sleep last night. It’s scary.”
“9/11 was nothing compared to this, We were open waiting for patients to come who never came, ok? Now they just keep coming.”
More than 1,100 people with Covid-19 have died in the US.
New York State is the epicentre of America’s pandemic.
The state has been afflicted with 37’258 confirmed cases over the past few weeks.
It’s current death toll is at 385 as of Thursday.