Donald Trump dismissed his own son Barron's coronavirus as 'the sniffles' as he continued to downplay the risk of the deadly virus, branding it a 'media conspiracy'.

Speaking at a rally in Allentown, Pennsylvania, with eight days to go until election day, the President repeated his claim that the US is "rounding the turn" of the virus - and implied the media was exaggerating about Covid-19 to influence the election.

He said: "We're rounding the turn. All they want to talk about is Covid.

"By the way on November 4th you won't he hearing so much about it.

"'Covid, Covid, Covid. Today let's talk about Covid.' All over Europe, Europe's spiking, they don't talk about that.

He added: "No we're rounding the turn and we have the vaccines coming out soon, years ahead of schedule."

And he said son Barron had recovered very quickly from the virus, and only had "the sniffles".

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Image:
Getty Images)

He's previously claimed Barron, 14, had recovered from the disease in "like two seconds."

When First Lady Melania Trump announced the news of his positive test, she said he had experienced no symptoms.

In a statement, she wrote: "My fear came true when he was tested again and it came up positive. Luckily he is a strong teenager and exhibited no symptoms.

"In one way I was glad the three of us went through this at the same time so we could take care of one another and spend time together. He has since tested negative."

Today, Trump repeatedly downplayed the virus on Twitter.

"The Fake News Media is riding COVID, COVID, COVID, all the way to the Election. Losers!" he wrote.

And he repeated his false claim that the US only showed an increase in Covid-19 cases because they test so many people.

He wrote: "Cases up because we TEST, TEST, TEST. A Fake News Media Conspiracy. Many young people who heal very fast. 99.9%.

"Corrupt Media conspiracy at all time high. On November 4th., topic will totally change. VOTE!"

Some 225,000 people have died from Covid-19 in the United States, with cases rising today by 59,691 to a total of 8.7 million.