NEW YORK, NY
The U.S. could see up to 65,000 coronavirus deaths, President Donald Trump said Friday.
“I think we will be substantially, hopefully, below the 100,000. I think, right now, we are heading at probably around 60,000, maybe 65,000,” Trump told reporters at the White House coronavirus task force news conference.
“One is too many,” he said but added the country could have lost more than 2 million to the virus.
In late March, the doctor leading the White House’s coronavirus response team, Deborah Birx, presented a model for the potential number of deaths.
It showed between 100,000 and 240,000 could die if the U.S. follows social distancing and public health guidelines. Without any intervention, it forecast 1.5 to 2 million deaths.
As of Friday evening, the U.S. had nearly 700,000 cases and more than 36,700 deaths. More than 58.500 have recovered.
The virus has spread to 185 countries, infecting more than 2.2 million patients and killing more than 153,800 worldwide since it first emerged in the Chinese city of Wuhan late last year.
