Trump says worst yet to come

As the United States reported more than 1,000 coronavirus-related deaths on Tuesday, President Donald Trump offered a grim acknowledgment that the country's outbreak will likely "get worse before it gets better".

"Some areas of the country are doing very well, others doing less well. It will probably, unfortunately, get worse before it gets better. I don't like saying that, but that's the way it is," Trump said.

But in his first virus-focused briefing in nearly three months, Trump painted a positive picture of what he described as US progress in fighting the surge of coronavirus cases in the South and West, on the development of a vaccine and in providing the nation's governors with all they need to counter the increasing numbers of infections.

He said that the US response had been "better than most" and reiterated his belief that "the virus will disappear".

Trump's briefing came amid polls showing former vice-president Joe Biden leading him in the November presidential race and on a day when the US recorded more than 1,000 deaths－the first time that mark has been breached in nearly 50 days. It is the highest single-day death total since June 2, when 1,052 fatalities were reported.

More than 3.8 million coronavirus infections have been reported in the US, and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said on Tuesday that an analysis of new data suggests the actual number of infections may be 10 times higher.

Trump detailed what he said was data that puts the US in a better position to defeat the virus than other countries, claiming it had a lower fatality rate than "almost everywhere else in the world".

But data from Johns Hopkins University shows the country has the 10th highest case fatality rate (3.7 percent) out of the 20 countries most affected by the coronavirus, and the third highest rate of deaths per 100,000 people.

Trump also claimed that none of the 50 governors in the country "needs anything right now" to address the new outbreaks.

Comments from some governors are at odds with that claim.

Oregon Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, told the PBS network on Monday night that "we need help with testing supplies and equipment". Earlier on Tuesday, Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, warned of testing shortages.

On Tuesday, states that reopened quickly－Florida, Arizona and Texas－led the nation in reported deaths, each posting more than 130. Florida logged a record number of new hospitalizations due to the coronavirus as the state's daily new case count reached its 28th consecutive day above 5,000.

More than official count

The number of people who have had the virus is much greater than the official case count, according to an analysis released by the CDC on Tuesday.

Depending on the region, the actual number is as much as six to 24 times the number of reported cases, the CDC team said.

In a report on Tuesday, the agency said more than 500 women had tested positive for the novel coronavirus at the Federal Medical Center-Carswell in Fort Worth, the fifth-largest city in Texas.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo added 10 more states to his quarantine list, increasing the total to 31 as he tries to mitigate the spread of the coronavirus to his constituents.

Alaska, Delaware, Indiana, Maryland, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, Virginia and Washington state all meet the metrics to qualify as hot spots, according to Cuomo's office.

Travelers from those states must quarantine for 14 days if they visit New York, which was the nation's virus epicenter earlier in the year.

Minnesota had been on the list, but has since been removed.

New York added 855 cases on Tuesday, taking the state's total number of infections to more than 408,000, according to Cuomo.

Xinhua contributed to this story.