Coronavirus will disappear: Trump

US President Donald Trump continues to insist the coronavirus will disappear one day, despite the recent surge in cases in several states like California, Texas, Arizona and Florida, and has said his predictions will be vindicated when all is said and done.

"I'll be right eventually," the president said in an interview that aired yesterday with Chris Wallace of Fox News Sunday after the host played a series of clips that showed Trump making pronouncements about the virus that have turned out not to be true.

"I will be right eventually. You know, I said, 'It's going to disappear.' I'll say it again. ... It's going to disappear, and I'll be right," Trump said of Covid-19, which has killed more than 140,000 Americans over the least five months.

Another claim Trump has pushed in recent weeks was that the surge in coronavirus cases that states are seeing was because of an increase in testing. But when testing was brought up during the Fox News interview, Wallace informed the president the surge was due to a spread of the novel virus.

"Testing is up 37 per cent," Trump said. "Cases are up 194 per cent. It isn't just that testing has gone up, it's that the virus has spread," the Fox News host said in response.

When the president was asked if the Confederate flag, considered a symbol of slavery and oppression by most Americans, was offensive, Trump said it is a source of pride for people who love the South.

Trump has in the past appeared sympathetic to the flag and symbols of the Confederacy of 1861-65 American Civil War.