President Donald Trump boasted about the wall at the U.S.-Mexico border as he spoke about the threat of the new coronavirus on Friday, saying at a rally: Border security is also health security.

Health experts told HuffPost a wall at the southern border is in no way related to preventing the spread of the virus in the U.S.

We must understand that border security is also health security, the president said to cheers from the crowd at a reelection campaign rally in North Charleston, South Carolina, one day before the Democratic primary in the state.

Youve all seen the wall is going up like magic, he continued, saying theyd have 500 miles built by very early next year.

We will do everything in our power to keep the infection from entering our country. We have no choice, Trump said. Whether its the virus that were talking about or many other public health threats, the Democrat policy of open borders is a direct threat to the health and well-being of all Americans Now you see it with the coronavirus.

When you have this virus... or any other problem coming in. Its not the only thing that comes through the border, Trump said. And now just using this so important, right? So important.

Dr. Celine Gounder a clinical assistant professor of infectious diseases at New York University and host of the podcast Epidemic said Trumps remarks show a real lack of understanding on the way diseases spread.

Walls are not going to keep [the virus] out, Gounder said, noting there were already two cases in California in which those infected had not traveled to any countries experiencing an outbreak or been in contact with anyone known to be infected meaning these could be the first cases of community spread of the virus in the United States .

Theres no point with approaching this as a borders issue, Gounder said. Its here.

Dr. Joshua Sharfstein , a professor of health policy at Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, said that the coronavirus threat was not related to the wall being built at the U.S. southern border.

The White House did not immediately respond to HuffPosts question as to whether Trump thinks building a border wall is related to preventing the spread of coronavirus.

As of Friday, there were more than 60 confirmed cases in the U.S. of COVID-19, or the disease caused by the virus, in the U.S. mostly of people repatriated to the U.S. from other countries. The World Health Organization on Friday raised its risk assessment of the coronavirus outbreak at a global level to very high.