WASHINGTON, May 3 (CNA) - President Donald Trump on Sunday (May 3) said the United States would have a COVID-19 vaccine by the end of this year.

"We are very confident that we're going to have a vaccine at the end of the year, by the end of the year," Trump said in a Fox News "town hall" show broadcast from the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC.

He also said he would urge the reopening of schools and universities in September, saying "I want them to go back".

The vaccine prediction moves up the timeline that has been discussed as the United States and other countries race to be the first to bring out a way to prevent COVID-19.

Trump insisted he would be happy for another country to beat US researchers to the medicine, saying "if it's another country I'll take my hat off".

"I don't care, I just want to get a vaccine that works."

Asked about risks during human trials in a research process that is going unusually quickly, Trump said "they're volunteers. They know what they're getting into."

Trump appeared to acknowledge that he was getting ahead of his own advisors on the prediction for the vaccine.

"The doctors would say, 'Well, you shouldn't say that.' I'll say what I think," he said.

The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) on Sunday reported 1,122,486 US cases of the new coronavirus, an increase of 29,671 cases from its previous count, and said the number of deaths had risen by 1,452 to 65,735.

The CDC reported its tally of cases of the respiratory illness known as COVID-19, caused by the novel coronavirus, as of 4pm EDT on Saturday, compared with its count a day earlier.

The CDC figures do not necessarily reflect cases reported by individual states. The tally reported over the weekend is preliminary and will be updated on Monday.