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Reuters
A study has estimated there may have been 36,000 fewer coronavirus-related deaths had the US entered lockdown a week earlier in March.
The Columbia University research also estimated that around 83% of deaths could have been avoided if measures had been taken two weeks earlier.
It suggested that 54,000 fewer people would have died had cities begun locking down on 1 March.
President Trump dismissed the report as a “political hit job”.
The study, which has not been peer reviewed yet, covers data up to 3 May, at which point there had been just over 65,300 coronavirus-related deaths in the US.
There have now been more than 93,400 coronavirus-related deaths in the United States, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
When did the US go into lockdown?
The results of the study indicate that stricter measures imposed sooner could have made a dramatic impact.
It said the findings “underscore the importance of earlier intervention and aggressive response in controlling” the virus.
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Media captionThe lost six weeks when the US failed to control the virus
Mr Trump urged citizens to limit travel on 16 March, five days after the World Health Organization declared the coronavirus outbreak a global pandemic.
Individual states then began lockdown measures at different times, with California and New York state going into lockdown on 19 March and 22 March respectively, while Georgia became one of the last to implement such measures on 3 April.
Critics say the Trump administration’s flawed and delayed rollout of testing meant states had limited information on the extent of the outbreak in February and early March. The president also downplayed the risk during this period.
What did President Trump say?
Asked about the research on Thursday before a visit to Michigan, Mr Trump said: “I was so early – it was earlier than anybody thought”.
Although the president claimed the study was a political attack on him, the findings also raise questions for other politicians about wh