Washington: The US is headed for a tough two weeks, President Donald Trump has warned, advising people to be prepared for the “hard days” ahead, as the country fights the fast-spreading coronavirus pandemic that the White House projects could claim one to two lakh lives in the coming weeks.
Trump’s remarks came as Deborah Bix, a member of White House Task Force on coronavirus, based on a model from actual data from the ground, said the death toll in the US could be between 100,000 to 200,000, with the strict implementation of the existing mitigation measures including social distancing till 30 April.
If no steps were to be taken, the death toll could range between 1.5 million and 2.2 million, Brix said on a day when the confirmed number of coronavirus infections in the US, according to the Worldometer website, skyrocketed to over 188,000, adding more than 24,000 new cases in a single day and the fatalities rose to 3,867.
“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” Trump told reporters on Tuesday at a briefing which has now become his daily coronavirus press conference at the White House for more than 10 days.
“We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks and then, hopefully, as the experts are predicting, as I think a lot of us are predicting after having studied it so hard, we are going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. But this is going to be a very painful, very, very, very painful two weeks,” Trump said.
In this grim scenario, where the daily death toll keeps on jumping at an unprecedented rate, and more than 250 million of the American population has been forced to stay inside their homes, the president asked his countrymen to be positive and cooperate in this war against the invisible army of coronavirus.
“I want to give people hope. I’m a cheerleader for the country,” said Trump who is the seeking his re-election in the November presidential elections.