Coronavirus: Trumps grim forecast death toll could reach 240,000 in US
As a field hospital rises in New York’s Central Park, President warns even the lowest forecast of 100,000 deaths is ‘a horrible number’.
Donald Trump has warned Americans to brace for a “very, very painful two weeks” as the White House unveiled forecasts that up to 240,000 could die in the US from the rampant coronavirus.
“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We’re going through a very tough few weeks,” a sombre Mr Trump said at the White House.
Mr Trump said the nation was facing a “great national trial unlike any we have ever faced before,” which would require “full absolute measure of our collective strength, love and devotion.’
He said the need to continue social distancing guidelines was “a matter of life of death”.
In a grim projection of the likely death toll in the US, Mr Trump’s coronavirus taskforce showed graphs projecting that over the next two to three months between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans would die from the virus.
Dr Deborah Birx, said the only way to keep the death toll lower would be for all Americans to strictly follow guidelines for social distancing.
“There’s no magic bullet. There’s no magic vaccine,” she said. “It’s just behaviours.”
Mr Trump said that even the low end of expectations of 100,000 deaths was ‘a horrible number’ but it was better than the 2.2 million projected deaths if the US did not take action to slow the spread of the virus. He said an outcome of 100,000 deaths would show that “we all, together, have done a very good job”
Grim milestone
More Americans have now died from the coronavirus pandemic than were killed in the 9/11 terror attacks of 2001 as the US deaths passed 3780 surpassing China’s official death toll.
The grim milestone came as an emotional New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said his younger brother and “best friend”, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, had tested positive for coronavirus.
“Luckily we caught it early enough,” Mr Cuomo said of his 49-year-old brother who is now quarantined in his basement. “But it’s my family, it’s your family, it’s all of our families. But this virus is that insidious, and we must keep that all in mind.”
Mr Cuomo, whose popularity has soared because of his no-nonsense daily press briefings about the extent of the pandemic in New York said hospitals were already creaking under the weight of new patients but that the ‘main battle’ would take place in two to three weeks when deaths would peak.
‘We are planning now for the battle on the top of the mountain,’ he said.
NY health care workers ‘exhausted’
More than 1550 people have died in New York from more than 76,000 cases, making it easily the most deadly hotspot in the nation.
“We underestimated this virus,” Mr Cuomo said. “It’s more powerful, it’s more dangerous than we expected,” adding that health care workers were becoming ‘physically exhausted. Even more, they are emotionally exhausted.”
In New York harbour the 1000-bed hospital ship Comfort began to accept patients for the first time, while officials announced that yet another temporary hospital would be created in the indoor tennis centre where the US Open is held.
Total coronavirus cases in the US soared to more than 185,000 with more than 3,780 deaths. This is higher than China’s official death toll of 3,305, although many believe China’s real death toll is higher.
The US death tally also exceeds that of France for the first time, making the US the third most deadly outbreak in the world behind Italy and Spain.
Meanwhile the White House and Congress are already debating a ‘Phase 4’ economic rescue package to stimulate the collapsed US economy less than a week after Congress passed a record $US2.2 trillion stimulus package.
Phase 4 stimulus package
Mr Trump said he wanted any new package to focus on an infrastructure funding bill, a 2016 election promise that he has not fulfilled.
“With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill,” Mr Trump tweeted. “It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4.”
Democrat leaders agree there will need to be a new stimulus package of some sort given the size and speed of the US economic slowdown.
With interest rates for the United States being at ZERO, this is the time to do our decades long awaited Infrastructure Bill. It should be VERY BIG & BOLD, Two Trillion Dollars, and be focused solely on jobs and rebuilding the once great infrastructure of our Country! Phase 4
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 31, 2020
“I think the odds are we’ll need more legislation. First, we don’t know the extent of the crisis in terms of the magnitude, so that could rise. But there are going to be problems that we don’t realise now that we’re going to have to grapple with,” Democrat Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer said. “So I think the odds are high there will be a COVID-4.”
As Mr Trump this week agreed to extend social distancing guidelines until the end of April, a new poll shows a sharp increase in the number of Americans who are now practising greater social distancing.
The Gallup poll shows that 83 per cent of US adults last weekend “avoided small gatherings of people, such as with family or friends.”
That was 68 per cent more than one week earlier. In mid-March, when there were less than 70 deaths in the US, only 23 per cent of people said they avoided small gatherings.
After initially saying he wanted to reopen the US economy as early as April 12, Mr Trump has said he will defer to his health experts in determining how long Americans should practice social distancing in order to slow the spread of the virus. The current guidelines are in place until April 30, but Mr Trump said he would be willing to extend them further if that was recommended by his coronavirus task force.
Cameron Stewart is also US Contributor for Sky News Australia
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