Published 01:00 IST, July 13th 2020
Trump claims US would be 'inundated' with COVID-19 without Mexico border wall
Trump has claimed that the country would have been ‘inundated’ by COVID-19 had it not been for new parts of the wall dividing Mexico and United States
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US President Donald Trump has claimed that the country would have been ‘inundated’ by COVID-19 had it not been for new parts of the wall dividing Mexico and United States. His comments came immediately after the Mexican President thanked him for not bringing up the subject at their meeting.
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'Respect and understanding'
Last week, Mexican President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador met Trump in Washington. As per reports, the Mexican leader appreciated the US president for treating Mexico with ‘respect’ and ‘understanding’. Later in the week, Obrador is also reported to have reiterated his gratitude to Trump for striking a ‘less discriminatory’ tone.
“We thank him for not raising the subject in public,“ Obrador said. However, soon, Trump defaulted to his favourite subject. Addressing officials, Trump claimed that the 250 miles fencing erected recently had stopped the virus from spreading.
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As per reports, the US President further added that the wall had made a “tremendous difference” because numbers on the southern border were “very, very small and especially with COVID”.
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“It turned out to be very lucky for us that we had the wall or we would have inundated because they have some big problems there in Mexico,” Trump said without offering any evidence.
On the other hand, residents in Northern Mexico have attempted to lessen the cross border traffic in a bid to reduce the influx of virus. According to John Hopkins University, the US continues to be the worst affected nation with southern states scrambling to reimpose lockdown. However, Mexico’s caseload is lower but experts believe it is the lack of testing in the south American country which is responsible for low count.
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Updated 01:00 IST, July 13th 2020