Trump warns US headed for ‘very, very painful two weeks’

US President Donald Trump speaks during the daily briefing on the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, in the Brady Briefing Room at the White House on March 31, 2020, in Washington, DC. – Trump on Tuesday warned of a “very painful” two weeks ahead as the United States wrestles with a surge in coronavirus cases. (Photo by MANDEL NGAN / AFP)

Washington, United States (AFP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday warned of a “very painful” two weeks as the United States wrestles with a coronavirus surge that the White House warns could kill as many as 240,000 Americans.

“This is going to be a very painful, a very, very painful two weeks,” Trump told a press conference at the White House.

Trump described the pandemic as “a plague.”

“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” he said.

Top health experts said that the decision to maintain strict social distancing was the only way to stop the easily transmitted virus, even if this has caused massive disruption to the economy with three quarters of Americans under some form of lockdown.

“There’s no magic vaccine or therapy. It’s just behaviors, each of our behaviors translating into something that changes the course of this viral pandemic over the next 30 days,” Deborah Birx, coronavirus response coordinator at the White House, said.

Birx displayed a chart at the press conference charting a range of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the United States, when current efforts at mitigation are taken into account.

WASHINGTON, DC – MARCH 31: Dr. Anthony Fauci (R), director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, speaks while flanked by President Donald Trump during the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the Brady Briefing room at the White House on March 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. With the nationwide death toll rising due to the coronavirus, the United States has extended its social distancing practices through the end of April, while many states have issued stay-at-home orders that strongly discourage residents from leaving home unless absolutely necessary or essential. Win McNamee/Getty Images/AFP

Infectious diseases specialist Anthony Fauci told the press conference that “mitigation is actually working” and that authorities are “doing everything we can to get it (the death toll) significantly below that.”

© Agence France-Presse