There will be a lot of deaths in next week: US President Trump

President Donald Trump on Saturday said that in the next couple of weeks the US may see the highest number of deaths due to the coronavirus as the cases top 301,902 in the country.

Talking about the scope of the disease in the United States in the next two weeks, he said, "There will be a lot of death." However, he stressed that the death toll 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.

 

The current death toll in the United States stands at 8,291 as on Saturday (local time) as per the data provided by the Johns Hopkins University.

Moreover, he said that the signing of the Defence Production Act (DPA) on the production of medical equipment was in retaliation to the companies who 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 said during a briefing today.

Dr. Mary E. Birch, member of the Coronavirus Task Force also reiterated President's comments on the magnitude of deaths in the next few weeks. Dr Birch said, "The next two weeks are extraordinarily important,"

She further added, "This is the moment to do everything that you can on the presidential guidelines."

The total number of confirmed cases in the United States crossed the 300,000 mark.

As on Sunday, the United States has at least 301,902 cases of coronavirus according to Johns Hopkins University's tally. At least 8,175 people have died in the US from coronavirus.

There was a steep rise in the number of cases in the last 24 hours. At least 23,949 new cases were reported, and at least 1,023 new deaths in the US have been reported in the last 24 hours.