Trump cancels Florida rally as US coronavirus cases reach 4m

US president Donald Trump announced on Thursday the cancellation of the Republican nominating convention in Florida as US coronavirus cases surpassed the 4.0m mark.

The rally, which was scheduled for August in Jacksonville, will not go ahead because it is not the right time to do a "big, crowded convention", said the President.

"The timing for this event is not right. It's just not right with what's happened recently," he said at a White House news conference.

Trump said convention events would be held "online in some form” as the main reason for the cancellation was “safety” of the people attending.

"It's hard for us to say we should have a lot of people packed into a room and then other people shouldn't do it," he said.

"There's nothing more crowded than a convention.

"I think we're setting an example."

Trump nevertheless is still standing by his decision to have schools open in September.

"Being at the school, being on the campus, is very, very important," he said. "In cities or states that are current hot spots... districts may need to delay reopening for a few weeks.

"The decision should be made based on the data and the facts on the ground in each community but every district should be actively making preparations to open," he added.

With a total of 4,028,741 cases and more than 144,000 deaths, the United States is by far the hardest-hit country in the world.