Donald Trump has admitted he played down the threat of the coronavirus because he did not want to ‘frighten’ the American people.

A book released by highly-respected journalist Bob Woodward, who broke the Watergate scandal story, contained 18 interviews with Trump from December 2019 to July 2020.

And during those conversations the President is said to have described COVID-19 as ‘deadly’ back in February, before the first US citizen had died from the virus.

"It goes through the air," Trump told Woodward on February 7.

"That's always tougher than the touch. You don't have to touch things. Right? But the air, you just breathe the air and that's how it's passed.

"And so that's a very tricky one. That's a very delicate one. It's also more deadly than even your strenuous flus."

Trump was then confronted by reporters about his remarks seven months ago, to which he conceded he had deceived the public to a certain extent, but that it was for their own good.

He said: "I don't want people to be frightened, I don't want to create panic, as you say, and certainly I'm not going to drive this country or the world into a frenzy.

"We want to show confidence, we want to show strength."

The 74-year-old told Woodward the virus was more serious than the flu, but conveyed a contradictory message to the American people.

Trump also publicly stated on March 10 that people should ‘stay calm’ because the virus will ‘just go away’.

One week later the country declared a state of national emergency, however the President told Woodward at the time that he stuck by his decision to play down the threat.

He said: "I wanted to always play it down. I still like playing it down, because I don't want to create a panic."

The United States has been the worst-hit country by the coronavirus pandemic with more than 6.5 million cases and 195,000 deaths.