Trump says peak US death rate likely in 2 weeks

President says peak death rate due to Covid-19 pandemic is likely to hit the country in two weeks

Washington, March 30: Some one lakh people in the US may die from the Covid-19 pandemic and the peak death rate was likely to hit the country in two weeks, President Donald Trump has warned, citing his health experts as he extended the "social distancing" guidelines until April 30.

His statement came as the death toll in New York state, America’s epicentre of Covid-19, crossed the 1,000 mark, with Governor Andrew Cuomo warning that thousands of people may die before the crisis ends. The total number of confirmed Covid-19 cases in the US stood at 143,025 and 2,509 people have died in the country, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

Assuring his countrymen that he expects the US to be on its way to recovery by June 1, Trump told reporters at a televised White House news conference that he had to extend the social distancing measures till April 30, based on the advice from his two top public health advisors and members of the White House Task Force on Covid19: Dr Deborah Bix and Dr Anthony Fauci.

“They demonstrate that the mitigation measures we are putting in place may significantly reduce the number of new infections and ultimately the number of fatalities. “I want the American people to know that your selfless inspiring and valiant efforts are saving countless lives. You are making a difference. The modelling estimates that the peak and death rate is likely to hit in two weeks,” Trump said during his second Rose Garden press conference on the Covid-19 outbreak.

Trump predicted his decision would save hundreds of thousands of lives, in an apparent moving of the political goalposts to account for the fast worsening US pandemic. “2.2 million people would have died if we didn’t do what we are doing,” the President said. “If we can hold that number down ... to 100,000, it’s a horrible number, maybe even less ... we all, all together have done a very good job,” Trump said.

The new April 30 date marks yet another reversal of position on the pandemic by the President, who last week made it clear he did not pick the Easter date, April 12, based on data but because it was a “beautiful timeline”.

Shrugging off his row back, Trump claimed Sunday that Easter (on April 12) had only been an “aspirational date”. “We can expect that by June 1 we will be well on our way to recovery,” he said. The pandemic is expanding in neighbouring New Jersey, where more than 13,000 cases have been reported, with 161 deaths.