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No Longer Downplaying Virus, Trump Says Up to 240,000 Will Die in U.S. from COVID-19

HeadlineApr 01, 2020

The White House coronavirus task force projected Tuesday between 100,000 and 240,000 people will die of COVID-19 in the United States — but only if the strictest quarantine measures are kept in place. President Donald Trump, who this week extended social distancing guidelines through the end of April, said the worst is yet to come.

President Donald Trump: “We’re going to go through a very tough two weeks. And then, hopefully, as the experts are predicting, as I think a lot of us are predicting, after having studied it so hard, we’re going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. But this is going to be a very painful, very, very painful, two weeks.”

President Trump said without efforts to mitigate the spread of coronavirus, up to 2.2 million Americans could die of COVID-19. The grim assessment stood in stark contrast to Trump’s repeated claims in recent weeks that the virus was “under control” and that it would “miraculously” go away by April.

As of today, April 1, the United States has the highest number of COVID-19 cases in the world, with over 188,000 people infected and over 4,000 dead. And the true rate of infection is certain to be far higher due to a critical shortage of test kits.

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