Trump Predicts 100,000 Americans May Die from COVID-19 as Death Toll Nears 68,000

As the country tops the list of the coronavirus affected nations worldwide, the number of COVID-19 cases across the United States exceeded 1,158,000 on Monday. At least 67,680 people succumbed to the fatal virus, according to data collected by Johns Hopkins University.

However, about half the states have now moved toward at least partial lifting of shutdowns.

Concerns over the real death toll being possibly much higher than the official US government numbers have also been recently voiced in mainstream media like The Washington Post and The New York Times.

During a virtual Fox News town hall Sunday evening, Trump stated, “We’re going to lose anywhere from 75, 80 to 100,000 people. That’s a horrible thing.”

The American leader on Friday said he hoped fewer than 100,000 Americans would die and earlier in the week had talked about 60,000 to 70,000 deaths, suggesting that “the worst days” of the coronavirus pandemic are over.

Trump was repeatedly warned about the dangers of the novel coronavirus in intelligence briefings in January and February,according to a report. The warnings — more than a dozen included in classified briefings known as the American president’s Daily Brief — came during a time Trump was mostly downplaying the threat of a COVID-19 pandemic.

The United States is currently the nation hardest hit by the coronavirus, with the number of cases and deaths exceeding other nations by a very wide margin. The virus pandemic has had a profound impact on the US economy, which experienced its sharpest decline in over a decade in the first three months of 2020. The total number of first-time filings for unemployment insurance has climbed to 30.3 million over the past six weeks of the forced lockdown due to the COVID-19 outbreak.

A study shows the US is expected to suffer the most COVID-19 deaths. The projection by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington’s School of Medicine suggested that the US is unsurprisingly in first place. According to the IHME study, the country is poised to sustain some 81,000 coronavirus deaths by August. In the worst case scenario, the death toll might even surpass the 136,000 mark.

The White House had projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the United State from the coronavirus pandemic even if current social distancing guidelines are maintained. They suggest if no social distancing measures had been put in place across the country between 1.5 million to 2.2 million people would have died.

Globally, the death toll from the coronavirus has topped 247,500, on Monday, with more than 3,507,500 people infected worldwide, according to a tally maintained by Johns Hopkins University.