Trump says he knew Covid-19 would be a pandemic — he also said it was a 'one-off' case

US president Donald Trump continues to backtrack on his stance on the coronavirus, now saying, “I felt it was a pandemic long before it was called a pandemic”.

The statement is in stark contrast to Trump's previous downplaying of the virus. He said on several occasions that he was “not worried” about its spread.

The New York Times reports that in January Trump told a reporter the virus was a one-off case in the US.

“No, not at all. We have it totally under control. It’s one person coming in from China and we have it under control. It’s going to be just fine.”

CNBC has provided a timeline of Trumps's tweets on the virus. He consistently downplays the effects, saying the stock market and US citizens are in “good shape”.

“As the weather starts to warm & the virus hopefully becomes weaker, and then gone,” Trump tweeted in February.

He has since declared the outbreak a national health emergency and freed up billions of dollars in potential aid.