US Prez Donald Trump warns the country; Says US heads towards painful days

Washington, April 1: US President Donald Trump has warned that the country is heading towards "a very, very painful two weeks," on Tuesday advising people to be prepared for the "hard days" ahead as the White House has projected that the coronavirus pandemic could claim 100,000 to 200,000 lives in upcoming weeks.

 

 

 

"I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead," Trump said at a White House news briefing. "We're going to go through a very tough two weeks, and then hopefully, as the experts are predicting ... we're going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. But this is going to be a very painful, a very, very painful two weeks."

The remarks came after Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator at the White House, displayed in the press conference charting a range of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the United States when current efforts at mitigation are taken into account. Trump has been widely condemned for exacerbating the crisis by failing to prepare testing kits, breathing apparatus and other equipment. He also predicted the country would soon see a "light at the end of the tunnel" in the pandemic that has killed more than 3,700 Americans and infected moreover 184,000 people.

 

"We're going through the worst thing that the country has probably ever seen. Look, we had - the Civil War, we lost 600,000 people, right? Here's a thing, had we not done anything, we would have lost many times that. But we did something, so it's going to be, hopefully, way under that," he said.

 

This is "unlike any we have ever faced before you all see it, you see it probably better than most. We are at war with a deadly virus. But you know, we lose more here potentially than you lose in world wars as a country. So there's nothing positive, there's nothing great about it, I want to get people in this country hope. I think it's very important," he further added.

 

"I want to give people hope. I'm a cheerleader for the country," said Trump who is seeking his re-election in the November presidential elections."Every citizen is being called upon to make sacrifices. Every business is being asked to fulfill its patriotic duty. Every community is making fundamental changes to how we live, work and interact each and every day, and I wouldn't be surprised to see this going on long into the future when this virus is gone and defeated," the president said.

 

So far, New York alone accounts for 75,795 confirmed cases of coronavirus and 1,550 deaths. On Tuesday, it has recorded 700 deaths in just a single day. As compared, China from where it all started in November-December time frame had 81,518 cases and 3,305 deaths.