Washington | Donald Trump says that holding America's death toll to under 100,000 would be a victory in his administration's battle to limit what has become the world's worst COVID-19 surge, with some of the nation's hospitals already on the brink of collapse.

In a dramatic 90-minute press conference late on Sunday (Monday AEDT), Mr Trump extended to April 30 his 15-day federal social distancing guidelines, which were due to expire on March 31, and said US deaths would peak in two weeks.