Trump: Early UK virus plan would be 'catastrophic'

President Donald Trump says UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson's original plan for dealing with the coronavirus would have been "catastrophic."

Speaking to reporters in the White House briefing room Tuesday night, Trump said the UK government's early coronavirus strategy plan, which involved allowing the virus to spread based on the presumption that most people in the country will eventually get the virus, would have killed millions.

"If you remember, they were looking at that concept, I guess it's a concept if you don't mind death, a lot of death, but they were looking at that in the UK, remember," Trump

said.

U.K. authorities were much slower to introduce the strict "social distancing" measures adopted by many neighboring nations.

"And all of a sudden they went hard the other way because they started seeing things that weren't good. So they were you know, they put themselves in a little bit of a problem," Trump said, pointing out that Johnson himself tested positive.

For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia. The vast majority of people recover from the new virus.