Trump warns of hard times as projections show 240K deaths

President Donald Trump has warned citizens of the hard times as the pandemic wreaks havoc in the states, with the White House predicting around 100,000 to 240,000 deaths from the virus across the country.Public health officials said the social distancing guidelines announced by the administration last month have not been strictly followed, and as a result, the risk of contracting the disease is still higher. The number of cases could be much lower if the public maintain these measures, they added, “We believe we can do a lot better than that,” but that would require all Americans to take their role seriously in preventing the spread of disease, White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr Deborah Birx was quoted as saying.Birx said the forecasts predicted 1.5 million to 2.2 million deaths in the US in a worst-case scenario, that is, without efforts to slow the spread of the virus through social distancing. Trump called the US efforts to slow the spread of the pandemic “a matter of life and death” and urged the public to follow the guidelines. “I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” Trump said. “We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks.”More than 170,000 Americans have been infected by the virus across several states of which 3,500 have died. Big cities, such as New York and California, have been worst affected. Dr. Anthony Fauci, the government’s top infectious disease expert, said the numbers are “sobering” and called on Americans to “step on the accelerator” with their collective mitigation efforts. “We are continued to see things go up,” Fauci said. “We cannot be discouraged by that because the mitigation is working and will work.”