Next two weeks critical, there will be lot of deaths, says US President Donald Trump

Amid the rising COVID-19 coronavirus cases in the US, President Donald Trump on Saturday (April 4) said that US the could see a lot of deaths in the next couple of weeks due to the deadly virus. Talking about the spread of the coronavirus in the US in the United States in the next two weeks, President Trump said, "There will be a lot of death." 

President Trump, however, asserted that the number of deaths can remain low if certain mitigation steps are taken. "This will be probably the toughest week between this week and next week, and there will be a lot of death, unfortunately, but a lot less death than if this wasn`t done but there will be death," Trump said during Coronavirus Taskforce Briefing. Notably, the US has recorded over 3 lakh coronavirus cases and the current death toll in the country due to deadly virus stands at 8,291.

Referring to the Defence Production Act (DPA) on the production of medical equipment, President noted that the DPA was in retaliation to the companies who failed to follow the government order and did not supply what the government wanted. "You could call it retaliation because that`s what it is. It`s retaliation. If people don`t -- if people don`t give us what we need for our people, we`re going to be very tough, and we`ve been very tough," Trump added.

Dr. Mary E. Birch, member of the Coronavirus Task Force also admitted that the next two weeks are very critical. "The next two weeks are extraordinarily important. This is the moment to do everything that you can on the presidential guidelines."

At least 8,175 people have died in the US from coronavirus so far, according to Johns Hopkins University`s tally. The US has recorded a sharp increase in the number of cases in the last 24 hours. 

The total number of positive cases across 181 nations on Saturday (April 4) stood at 1,159,515 and death toll reached 63,832, according to the data released Johns Hopkins University`s Coronavirus Resource Centre.

The US remained at the top with the maximum number of positive cases at 290,606, followed by Spain with 124,736 infected cases, Italy with 124,632 cases, Germany with 92,150 cases and France at the fifth spot with 83,031 cases. On Saturday, Spain surpassed Italy on the number of positive cases.