Trump says US COVID-19 pandemic under control even as death toll rises

WASHINGTON -- US President Donald Trump said the coronavirus pandemic is as well-controlled in the United States as it can be, despite the fact that over 155,000 American people have died amid rising infections, according to media reports.

In a recent interview with US news website AXIOS, the president said his administration has done an "incredible" job handling the pandemic, and he continued urging schools in the country to reopen on his Twitter account.

"They are dying, that's true. And you have - it is what it is. But that doesn't mean we aren't doing everything we can. It's under control as much as you can control it. This is a horrible plague," Trump said in the interview.

The president also insisted that growing diagnostic testing in his country accounted for the rise in confirmed COVID-19 cases.

According to a tally by Johns Hopkins University, as of Tuesday afternoon, more than 4.75 million confirmed COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States, with over 156,000 deaths.