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Trump put Vice President Mike Pence in charge of the US coronavirus response last week, amid complaints the administration had been slow to prepare for its spread. AFP file photo
A top US health official on Thursday said the overall mortality rate for the novel coronavirus was estimated at one percent or less, lower than previously thought, basing the new figure on a high number of unreported cases.
It came after President Donald Trump was criticised for saying he believed the World Health Organization's reported death rate of 3.4 percent to be "false," based on a "hunch."
Trump was invoking the fact the WHO figure is based on reported cases only, and as such the true lethality of the disease may only be understood better over time -- a point on which health experts agree.
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