The number of Americans dying from COVID-19 has been falling for weeks, a case the White House is making as it points out that the U.S.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany told reporters Monday that the fatality rate — the ratio between confirmed deaths and confirmed cases — is well below that of France, the United Kingdom and Germany, as she defended President Trump’s comment during his Fourth of July address that 99% of novel coronavirus cases are “totally harmless.”.

McEnany said at a press briefing.

cases, recoveries, deaths.

She said the number of deaths from COVID-19 on Sunday was 209, which was down 23% from the previous week.

Alex Berenson, author of “Unreported Truths About Covid-19 and Lockdowns,” said the “news is significantly better on all fronts” when it comes to SARS-CoV-2, the official name of the virus.

“Despite fact that the number of positive SARS-COV-2 tests (what the media calls cases) in the Sun Belt has been rising for the last few weeks, hospitalizations and especially patients in intensive care and on ventilators are rising much more slowly,” Mr.

Trump said in a Twitter post that COVID-19 deaths in the U.S.

July Fourth festivities could result in an uptick in deaths and serious cases in the next two weeks, given reports of celebrations and beaches where not all people engaged in social distancing or mask-wearing, but Mr.

“Deaths can lag positive cases by a couple of weeks, but they should not lag by a month or more,” he said in an email.

“So the decline in deaths is evidence that either the rise in positive tests is occurring mainly among younger people at low risk, doctors are getting better at treating COVID, doctors in [New York] and the early states made unfortunate and possibly preventable mistakes, or the virus itself is becoming less dangerous.”.

Florida notched a record 11,458 cases on Saturday, although that number fell to 6,336 on Monday, with a 15% positive test rate Sunday.

The state recorded 47 deaths related to COVID-19.

Atlanta Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms said Monday that she had testified positive.

Trump said during his July Fourth address on the South Lawn of the White House that nearly 40 million people have been tested