Trump says 'time will tell' who will be in White House in first public remarks since election defeat

• Video report by ITV News Washington Correspondent Robert Moore

Donald Trump acknowledged "time will tell" who will be in White House in January, as he delivered his first public remarks since his election defeat by President-elect Joe Biden.

Speaking from the White House Rose Garden, he hinted that he might not have won the election, but is still refusing to officially concede.

The president said his administration would not go into lockdown, even as the US sets records for confirmed cases of Covid-19 and deaths climb to the highest levels since the spring, but admitted he could not be sure what any future administration may decide to do.

Mr Trump said: "Ideally we wont go to a lockdown, I will not go, this administration will not be going to a lockdown, hopefully whatever happens in the future...who knows which administration it will be, I guess time will tell but I can tell you, this administration will not be going into a lockdown."

His comments came as CNN declared that Biden had flipped the battleground state of Georgia and Trump won in North Carolina.

It means Biden has won a total of 306 electoral college votes - equalling the number Trump won four years ago - against the president's 232.

During his speech, Mr Trump's hailed developments in the race for a coronavirus vaccine and said one would ship in “a matter of weeks” to vulnerable populations, though the Food and Drug Administration has not yet been asked to grant the necessary emergency approvals.

In addition, there is no information yet as to whether the vaccine worked in vulnerable populations or only in younger, healthier study volunteers.

Public health experts worry that Mr Trump’s refusal to take aggressive action on the pandemic or to coordinate with the Biden team during the final two months of his presidency will only worsen the effects of the virus and hinder the nation’s ability to swiftly distribute a vaccine next year.

And as cases reach new heights, Mr Trump’s campaign prediction that the US was “rounding the turn” on the pandemic has met a harsh reality, with his own White House becoming the focus of yet another outbreak.

Mr Trump’s aggressive travel despite the virus has taken its toll on his protectors as well.

The US Secret Service is experiencing a significant number of cases, many believed to be linked to his rallies in the closing days of the campaign, according to one official.

White House press secretary Kayleigh McEnany, meanwhile, said Mr Trump is “not even at that point yet” when it comes to conceding to Mr Biden.

Mr Trump has levelled baseless allegations of widespread voter fraud, even as his own administration has said there is no evidence to support the claims.

His aides suggest he is merely trying to keep his base of supporters on his side in defeat.

Mr Trump spoke with conservative media on Friday, including Fox News’s Geraldo Rivera, suggesting he would acknowledge the loss only after exhausting his legal options.

“You know, he told me he was a realist,” Mr Rivera said. “He told me he would do the right thing.”

With more than 100,000 new confirmed US cases reported daily for more than a week, Mr Trump has been more focused on tracking the rollout of a vaccine, which will not be widely available for months.

He has fumed that Pfizer intentionally withheld an announcement about progress on its vaccine trial until after Election Day, according to a White House official. Pfizer said it did not purposely withhold trial results.

Mr Trump, aiming to settle political scores, said he would not ship vaccines to hard-hit New York until Democratic Governor Andrew Cuomo signs off, noting that the state has promised to do its own review to ensure their safety. “The governor will let us know when he’s ready,” Mr Trump said.

Although the president has consistently played down the pandemic, which has killed more than 240,000 Americans and infected more than 10 million people in the US, public health experts expressed worry about Mr Trump’s silence on the troubling spike in cases, as well as his refusal to begin coordination on virus issues with Mr Biden’s transition team.

“It’s a big problem,” said Dr Abraar Karan, a global health specialist at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Harvard Medical School.

“The transition is not going to happen until January, and we are in a complete crisis right now. We already knows where this is headed. It’s not good enough to say we’re going to wait until the next president to address this.”