Coronavirus: Donald Trump warns US to brace for 'very horrendous’ number of Covid-19 deaths in coming days
US President Donald Trump cautioned Americans on Saturday that the country was about to confront its toughest week of the coronavirus crisis as the total number of deaths from the pandemic mounted to 60,000.
"There will be a lot of death, unfortunately," Trump said in a somber start to his daily briefing on the pandemic. "There will be death."
Joining the US President were Mine Pence, Dr Deborah Birx (virus task force coordinator) and Dr Anthony Fausi, the US government’s top infection disease expert. All of them stood far apart from eachother on the stage.
Donald Trump added a twist on his familiar push for a drug that has not been clearly shown to work to end the virus. He said that he himself may start taking it as a precautionary measure after taking counsel from his doctor, despite the fact that there is no proof to show it works.
The President at the beginning had suggested the country could reopen by Easter but withdrew looking at projections of a shocking death toll regardless off prohibitory steps in place. However, days after extending tough guidelines through the end of April, starring down historic levels of unemployment and economic halt, he was speaking about reopening as early as possible.
"This country was not designed to be closed," he said. "The cure cannot be worse than the problem."
The total number of people infected in the United States has crossed 300,000, with the death toll mounting past 8,100.
Substantial part of the country is under orders to stay indoors, including professional sports leagues that were among the first to stop. Donald Trump spoke with top leaders including Roger Goodell of the National Football League and the NBA’s Adem Silver, telling them he hoped to get every thing back to normal as soon as possible.
"I want fans back in the arenas," he said. "Whenever we're ready, as soon as we can."
The crisis has decimated the sporting world with the National Basketball Association and the National Hockey League putting off their season indefinitely.
A person with understanding of the call stated that some of the commissioners were not as cheery as the President due to the concerns caused by public health officials however respected Trump’s desire to give people hope and fans a reason to be positive.
Governor of California, Gavin Newsom, who has three NFL teams, was asked if the seeason would start. "I'm not anticipating that happening in this state," he said.
Hard-hit states were observing cases increase. Trump suggested that some states were asking for more medical supplies than they required. He stated that the aim was to stay days ahead of critical medical needs in every state.
"The fears of the shortages have led to inflated requests," he said.
Lousiana officials have stated that New Orleans is on track to run out of ventilators by next week. Governor Andrew Cuomo, whose state is at ground zero of the pandemic with more than 113,700 confirmed cases, has asked for ventilators. New York is poised to get more than 1,100 ventilators from China and Oregon.
Health officials did offer some hope that social distancing steps were turning out well. Fauci stated he saw the attempts in action as he went out in Washington and saw people maintaining gaps for restaurant take away.
"As sobering and a difficult as this is, what we are doing is making a difference," Fauci said.
But even as Fauci asked Americans to be patient and let mitigation attempts work, Donald Trump stated: "Mitigation does work. But again, we're not going to destroy our country."
Earlier, booming economy was Trumps biggest talking point, but the past few weeks have seen steep drop as the US deals with the fallout from the Covid-19 that has closed businesses, airlines and have forced people into their homes.
Donald Trump also touted hydroxychloroquine, a drug used to treat malaria, after a small preliminary studies suggested it might help prevent the coronavirus. The President suggested he may consider if he should start taking the drug, though he also stated that he’d consult his doctor first.
For most people, Covid-19 causes mild or moderate symptoms, like fever an cough for two to three weeks. For some, mainly older adults and people with existing health problem, it can be life threatening
Also Read: Covid-19: Health Ministry draws out tough cluster containment plan to curb spread of coronavirus
