Donald Trump warns ‘There will be a lot of death’ from coronavirus this week

The president gave the grim warning at a coronavirus briefing on Saturday

Donald Trump has warned ‘there will be a lot of death’ from coronavirus in the US this week.

Speaking at the White House Saturday, the President of the United States said: ‘This will probably be the toughest week, between this week and next week. There will be a lot of death, unfortunately.

‘But a lot less death than if this (social distancing) wasn’t done. But there will be death.’

‘It looks like New York is going to be very hard. Louisiana, its amazing the way they just spread out. When the brunt of it comes, and it’s coming quickly, we want to be ready to hit the area that needs it.’

The president’s grim warning was in marked contrast to his insistence in the early stages of the outbreak that it would ‘wash through’ the US without causing much harm.

Pres. Trump: “This will be, probably, the toughest week, between this week and next week. And there will be a lot of death, unfortunately.” https://t.co/HM0x69nTOJ pic.twitter.com/xKOsxuZ0fy

— CBS News (@CBSNews) April 4, 2020

Trump has since accepted scientific modeling predicting that between 100,000 and 240,000 people will be killed by coronavirus across the United States.

Over 305,000 people across the US had tested positive for Covid-19 by Saturday evening, with almost 8,300 known to have died with the virus. New York is by far the hardest-hit state, with 114,000 diagnoses and almost 3,000 deaths.

The number of people infected in Louisiana has rocketed by 2,000 a day, to over 12,000, with 409 people killed by Covid-19.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Saturday his state’s coronavirus ‘apex’ – when it sees its highest number of diagnoses and deaths – could be just a week off, although he cited other models saying the Empire State may endure another month of exponential rises before hitting its peak.

At Saturday’s press conference, White House immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci echoed Trump’s comments about deaths beginning to increase in the coming days. But he also insisted that draconian social distancing measures that have seen thousands of businesses close down across the US were working to slow the spread of the virus.

Trump said his administration was working to ensure the hardest-hit regions were given federal supplies of protective equipment for doctors, as well as ventilators to help Covid-19 patients breathe.

He added: ‘We are looking for an obvious focus and the hardest-hit regions.

‘We will move heaven and Earth to safeguard our great American citizens, to keep our citizens safe, secure and to open our country again.’