The administration of U.S. President Donald Trump has highlighted an apparent disconnect between rising cases and declining mortality as proof the COVID-19 pandemic is under control.
"Fatalities are declining all across the country,” Vice President Mike Pence said at a coronavirus task force briefing in Washington on Friday. He called the rise in new cases in people under 35 "very encouraging news,” saying they aren’t as likely to die from COVID-19.
However, the mismatch appears to be more an anomaly caused by quirks in how deaths data is collected and reported, along with a greater number of younger people catching the contagion, than a sign the coronavirus is becoming less lethal or easier to treat.