Donald Trump squares off against Democratic challenger Joe Biden in a 2020 presidential debate. (file photo)

Former US President Donald Trump says he is appreciative President Joe Biden after the latter praised him over the development of the Covid-19 vaccines.

Biden credited Trump twice during a speech as he outlined his administration’s plans to tackle the omicron variant.

I’m very appreciative of that - I was surprised to hear it, Trump told Fox News. I think it was a terrific thing, and I think it makes a lot of people happy... I think he did something very good... You know, it has to be a process of healing in this country, and that will help a lot.

He further gave himself even more credit over his administration’s Covid-19 vaccine effort dubbed Operation Warp Speed.

When we came up with these incredible vaccines - three of them - and therapeutics, we did a tremendous job, and we should never disparage them, Trump continued. We should be really happy about it because we’ve all saved millions and millions of lives all over the world.

The unlikely comments by the Republican and Democratic leaders come amid a political rift in the country in the wake of Trump’s refusal to concede defeat in the 2020 presidential election.

I think that it’s really a question of tone. It’s a question of trust, and hopefully, the people that have had Covid, hopefully they will be given credit for that.

President Biden is, meanwhile, trying to tackle a persisting vaccine hesitancy as well as imposing a mask mandate without being blamed for violating civil liberties.

Thanks to the prior administration and our scientific community, America was one of the first countries to get the vaccine, Biden said in remarks from the White House in an update on the US coronavirus strategy, referring to the Trump administration’s Covid-19 vaccine effort. Thanks to my administration and the hard work of Americans, we led a rollout that made America among the world leaders in getting shots in arms.

So far, more than 809 thousand people have lost their lives to the virus out of the over 51 million cases officially reported nationwide.