Trump claims 3.4% death rate from coronavirus is 'false,' contradicting World Health Organization

• President Donald Trump claimed 3.4% coronavirus death rate is "false" in an interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity.
• "Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number," Trump said. "Now, this is just my hunch but based on a lot of conversation with a lot of people who do this, because a lot of people will have this and it's very mild. They'll get better very rapidly. They don't even see a doctor."
• The World Health Organization recently reported the global death rate from coronavirus stands at 3.4%, an increase from previous estimate of 2%.
• However, as Business Insider previously reported, "The death rate is likely to change further as more cases are confirmed, though experts predict that the percentage of deaths will decrease in the longer term since milder cases of COVID-19 are probably going undiagnosed."
• The US has had 11 deaths so far - 10 in Washington state and one in California - with more than 150 reported cases.
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President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed the death rate from the novel coronavirus was not 3.4%, contradicting the number that the World Health Organization gave on Tuesday.

The president appeared in an exclusive interview with Fox News' Sean Hannity on Wednesday, saying he thinks the true death rate is a "fraction of 1%."

"Well, I think the 3.4% is really a false number," Trump said. "Now, this is just my hunch but based on a lot of conversation with a lot of people who do this, because a lot of people will have this and it's very mild. They'll get better very rapidly. They don't even see a doctor."

The World Health Organization recently reported the global death rate from coronavirus stands at 3.4%, an increase from previous estimate of 2%. "Globally, about 3.4% of reported COVID-19 cases have died," the WHO Director-General Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, said on Tuesday.

The number 3.4% is based on the current data, and experts do believe the number could change. As Business Insider previously reported, "experts predict that the percentage of deaths will decrease in the longer term since milder cases of COVID-19 are probably going undiagnosed."

As of Wednesday, the global death toll from the coronavirus neared 3,300, with over 95,000 confirmed cases around the world.

The US has had 11 deaths so far - 10 in Washington state and one in California - with more than 150 reported cases. However, due to a shortage of coronavirus testing kits, the US has not been testing a significant amount of people for the virus.

Trump later claimed in the interview that "hundred-of-thousands" of people get better from the virus, even though there have been less than 100,000 cases confirmed in the world.

A representative from the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment from Business Insider.

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