Trump urged to pause H-1B visas

Prez advises people to be prepared for ‘hard days’ in Covid fight

Washington: A US body representing American technology workers has urged President Donald Trump to suspend for this year the H-1B visa programme to protect their interests amidst the massive layoffs in the country due to the corona pandemic.

Washington, April 1: The US is headed for a “very tough two weeks”, President Donald Trump has warned, advising people to be prepared for the “hard days” ahead, as the country was at war with a deadly Covid-19 pandemic that the White House projects could claim one to two lakh lives during the next fortnight. Trump’s remarks came as Deborah Bix, a member of White House Task Force on Covid-19, based on a model from actual data from the ground, said the death toll in the US could be between 100,000 to 200,000, with the strict implementation of the existing mitigation measures, including social distancing till April 30.

If no steps were to be taken, the death toll could range between 1.5 million and 2.2 million, Brix said on a day when the confirmed number of Covid-19 infections in the US, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center website, zoomed to over 189,500, adding more than 25,000 new cases in a single day and the fatalities rose to over 4,000.

“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” a grim-faced Trump told reporters on Tuesday at a briefing which has now become his daily Covid-19 press conference at the White House for more than 10 days. “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 are going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel. But this is going to be a very painful, very, very, very painful two weeks,” Trump said. In this grim scenario, where the daily death toll keeps on jumping at an unprecedented rate, and more than 250 million of the American population has

been forced to stay inside their homes, the president asked his countrymen to be positive and cooperate in this war against the invisible army of Covid-19.

“I want to give people hope. I’m a cheerleader for the country,” said Trump who is the seeking re-election in the November presidential elections. Campaigning

has come to a standstill and it is unlikely to revive in the next few months. The country is expected to face the peak around middle of April.

— AFP Beijing-based artist Roy Wang has paid tribute to doctors and nurses battling to treat virus patients in his latest light painting creations. Wang and his team used the photographic technique of light painting to ‘draw’ white wings on the back of a model posing in a white hazmat suit, the protective gear that has come to symbolise medical workers fighting the virus worldwide.