Coronavirus: Trump warns of horrendous phase, says there will be 'a lot of death'

US President Donald Trump speaks at a news conference on April 4, 2020. PHOTO: REUTERS

WASHINGTON (REUTERS) - President Donald Trump on Saturday (April 4) warned Americans of a spike in deaths and doubled down on his support for a drug that is still being tested to treat the coronavirus, saying he may take the medicine himself and encouraged others with doctor approval to do the same.

At his daily press briefing, Trump also chided some states for requesting more ventilators from the federal government than he said they needed.

Trump said the next fortnight would be particularly tough. "There's going to be a lot of death," he told reporters.

White House medical experts have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could be killed in the pandemic, even if sweeping orders to stay home are followed.

"We are coming up to a time that is going to be very horrendous," Trump said at the White House. "We probably have never seen anything like these kind of numbers. Maybe during the war, during a World War One or Two or something."

But he also reiterated his concern that the social distancing "cure" for the outbreak was worse than the problem.

The United States has the world's highest number of known cases of Covid-19, the flu-like respiratory disease caused by the coronavirus. More than 306,000 people have tested positive in the United States and over 8,300 have died, according to a Reuters tally.

The US government would be deploying thousands of military personnel to states to help them deal with the coronavirus epidemic, Trump said. He added that 1,000 military personnel are being sent to New York City, including military doctors and nurses.

Trump faced criticism for initially playing down the risks of the coronavirus and has vacillated between warning Americans about its severity and complaining about its economic costs.

Trump's optimistic comments on Saturday about the benefits of anti-malaria drug hydroxychloroquine to treat Covid-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, reflected his tendency to put a positive spin on an issue even as data was still being gathered.

"I may take it," Trump said. "I'll have to ask my doctors about that, but I may take it."

Trump has been tested twice for the coronavirus, according to the White House, and both times the results were negative.

The European Commission said this week that the efficacy of hydroxychloroquine treating Covid-19 had not been proven.

Trump said the federal government had 29 million doses of the drug and was adding to its national stockpile. He said he had asked Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Saturday to lift a hold on a US order of the drug as well.

The US Food and Drug Administration has issued an emergency authorisation for the drug to be distributed from the national stockpile for doctors to prescribe to hospitalised Covid-19 patients, even as tests continue to be conducted and data collected.

"We're just hearing really positive stories and we're continuing to collect the data," Trump said.

The president said fears of shortages had prompted US states to request more ventilators than they needed. He said the federal government had 10,000 in its stockpile. "Some states have more ventilators than they need, they don't even like to admit it," he said.

The president, a Republican who is running for re-election in November, also praised Republican governors who have not issued "stay at home" orders for their states.

"They're doing very well and they're doing a magnificent job of running their states," he said.

Even as top doctors emphasised the importance and effectiveness of social distancing measures, Trump again seemed to chafe at their impact on the economy.

"We're not going to destroy our country," he said. "We cannot let this continue, so at a certain point some hard decisions are going to have to be made."

The current federal guidelines, which include admonitions for people to wash their hands and avoid groups larger than 10, are in place through the end of April.

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