US President Donald Trump has said he his ‘very confident’ the country will have a coronavirus vaccine by the end of the year.

Speaking at a virtual town hall meeting at the Lincoln Memorial with Fox News, the President also reiterated his new prediction of 100,000 American deaths and once again took aim at China for the origin of the disease.

Despite scientists across the globe predicting a vaccine is 12 - 18 months away, Trump said: "We are very confident we are going to have a vaccine by the end of the year."

And while in April he predicted there would be 60,000 deaths, he has revised his estimation. “We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people. That’s a horrible thing.”

The US death toll so far stands at nearly 69,000.

Trump was asked why he didn't act sooner in relation to the virus and he said on January 23 he was told in briefings a ‘virus could be coming’.

“In other words, it wasn’t: ‘Oh, we’ve got to do something, we’ve got to do something.’ It was a brief conversation.”

And in a further attack on China, the President said: “I think they made a horrible mistake and they didn’t want to admit it."

His comments came after Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said last night there was 'significant evidence' the virus began in a Wuhan lab.