‘Prepare for 100,000 to die’: Tony Fauci warns of astonishing death toll and tells areas not on lockdown to take action NOW – as Donald Trump says next two weeks will be ‘VERY painful’ and White House reveals even worse projections

‘Prepare for 100,000 to die’: Tony Fauci warns of astonishing death toll and tells areas not on lockdown to take action NOW – as Donald Trump says next two weeks will be ‘VERY painful’ and White House reveals even worse projections
Dr. Tony Fauci warned Americans should be prepared for 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus
‘The answer is yes – as sobering a number as that is, we should be prepared for it’
The White House projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. if current social distancing guidelines are maintained
President Donald Trump said the prediction was ‘sobering’
‘This is going to be a very painful, a very, very painful two weeks,’ Trump said
The U.S. death toll rose to more than 4,000 by Wednesday morning
The outbreak hit America two months ago, and has left more than 180,000 sick
China’s official death toll stands at about 3,300
U.S. cases have now overtaken hard-hit Italy and Spain
Worldwide, more than 800,000 people have been infected and 40,000 died
Experts have cast doubt on the reliability of China’s figures
Coronavirus symptoms: what are they and should you see a doctor?
By EMILY GOODIN, SENIOR U.S. POLITICAL REPORTER FOR DAILYMAIL.COM

PUBLISHED: 23:44 BST, 31 March 2020 | UPDATED: 14:09 BST, 1 April 2020

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Dr. Tony Fauci painted a grim picture for Americans on Tuesday, warning that people should be prepared for 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus.

‘The answer is yes – as sobering a number as that is, we should be prepared for it,’ he said when asked about the six-figure mark during the daily White House press briefing. ‘Is it going to be that much? I hope not and I think the more we push on the mitigation the less likely to be that number but, being realistic, we need to prepare ourselves that is a possibility that that’s what we’ll see.’

The White House projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. if current social distancing guidelines are maintained.

Fauci used the figures to urge people to stick to social distancing guidelines of six feet of separation.

‘Whenever you’re having an effect, it’s not time to take your foot off the accelerator, and on the brake, but to just press it down on the accelerator,’ Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said of mitigation efforts.

‘The fifteen days that we’ve had of mitigation clearly are having an effect,’ he noted.

He said such efforts could also help damage any potential second wave of illness.

‘We hope that doesn’t happen and that is why we are really pushing and why I was so emphatic about making sure we abide by those mitigation strategies,’ he said.

President Donald Trump said the prediction was ‘sobering’ and called efforts to spread the slow of the coronavirus ‘a matter of life and death.’

‘It’s absolutely critical for the American people to follow the guidelines for the next 30 days, it’s a matter of life and death, frankly,’ the president said.

‘I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead. We’re going through a very tough few weeks. And, hopefully, as the experts have predicted is a lot of us are predicting having studied it so hard, going to start seeing some real light at the end of the tunnel and this is going to be a very painful, a very very painful two weeks,’ he noted.

It was a stark change in tone for President Trump, who last week sounded a note of hope the crisis would be over in the next few weeks. Now his administration is preparing Americans for tougher times to come.

Dr. Tony Fauci warned on Tuesday that Americans should be prepared for 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus +18
Dr. Tony Fauci warned on Tuesday that Americans should be prepared for 100,000 deaths from the coronavirus

President Donald Trump said the prediction was ‘sobering’ +18
President Donald Trump said the prediction was ‘sobering’

The White House projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. if current social distancing guidelines are maintained +18
The White House projected 100,000 to 240,000 deaths in the U.S. if current social distancing guidelines are maintained

The grim prognosis came as Americans are enduring school closures, work from home orders, and social lives on hold.

The prediction also came after the number of Americans who died from the coronavirus surpassed the number of Americans killed in the September 11th attacks.

To help its mitigation plan, President Trump extended his administration’s recommendations to slow the spread of virus from 15 days until the end of April.

The guidelines urged Americans to end social gatherings over the number of 10, work from home, and order take out.

Trump’s announcement Sunday that those recommendations would be extended until April 30th was an abrupt reversal after he spent much of last week saying he’d like to see limitations lifted by Easter, which is April 12.

Many states and local governments already have stiffer controls in place to enforce social distancing.

But there all the tough talk of days to come, there were some glimmers of hope.

‘If all of the other states and all the other metro areas are able to hold that case number down, then it’s a very different picture,’ said Dr. Deborah Birx, who is coordinating the administration’s day-to-day response to the disease.

‘We’re going to do everything we can to get it significantly below that,’ she said.

Fauci agreed.

‘We don’t accept that number, that that’s what it’s going to be. We’re going to do everything we can to get that number even below that,’ he said.

The U.S. death toll from the coronavirus climbed past 4,000 on Wednesday, eclipsing China’s official count, as hard-hit New York City rushed to bring in more medical professionals and ambulances and parked refrigerated morgue trucks on the streets to collect the dead.

At least 4,076 people in the US have died from the deadly virus, according to data collected by the John Hopkins University.

The global benchmark reports that 3,309 people have died from the virus in China, where the global pandemic originated.

Fears that the U.S. is on track to become the new Italy, whose healthcare system has buckled under the weight of the pandemic, are fast becoming a reality.

Italy has recorded more deaths, with 12,428 as of Tuesday afternoon. However, the U.S. has far surpassed its number of confirmed cases, with the U.S. reaching 189,199 to Italy’s 105,792.

The mounting crisis hit close to home for New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo, who reported teary-eyed that his brother, CNN anchor Chris Cuomo, had tested positive for the virus.

The U.S. death toll has reached 3,906 and more than 189,000 people have been infected as of late Wednesday +18
The U.S. death toll has reached 3,906 and more than 189,000 people have been infected as of late Wednesday

+18
China’s cases stand at 82,278 and at least 3,309 deaths have been reported
China’s cases stand at 82,278 and at least 3,309 deaths have been reported

The number of coronavirus cases around the globe now stands at more than 846,000, with more than 41,000 dead
The number of coronavirus cases around the globe now stands at more than 846,000, with more than 41,000 dead

The governor pronounced the disaster unlike any other the city has weathered: ‘This is ongoing and the duration itself is debilitating and exhausting and depressing.’

New York was the nation’s deadliest hot spot, with about 1,550 deaths statewide, most of them in New York City, which braced for things to get much worse in the coming weeks.

A 1,000-bed emergency hospital set up at the mammoth Javits Convention Center began taking non-coronavirus patients to help relieve the city’s overwhelmed health system.

A Navy hospital ship with 1,000 beds that arrived on Monday was expected to begin accepting patients on Tuesday.

The indoor tennis center that is the site of the U.S. Open tournament is being turned into a hospital as well.

The city also worked to bring in 250 out-of-town ambulances and 500 paramedics to deal with a crush of emergency calls.

The fire commissioner said ambulances are responding to double their normal daily total of 3,000 calls to 911.

A five-day stretch last week was the busiest in the history of the city’s emergency services operation.

A Samaritan’s Purse crew and medical personnel work on preparing to open a 68 bed emergency field hospital specially equipped with a respiratory unit in New York’s Central Park +18
A Samaritan’s Purse crew and medical personnel work on preparing to open a 68 bed emergency field hospital specially equipped with a respiratory unit in New York’s Central Park

A body wrapped in plastic is unloaded from a refrigerated truck and handled by medical workers wearing personal protective equipment due to COVID-19 concerns +18
A body wrapped in plastic is unloaded from a refrigerated truck and handled by medical workers wearing personal protective equipment due to COVID-19 concerns

In addition, New York authorities sought to bring on more volunteer health care professionals and hoped to have them on board by Thursday.

Nearly 80,000 former nurses, doctors and others are said to be stepping forward, and the governor said officials are doing background checks for disciplinary actions and otherwise making sure they are fit for duty.

As for Chris Cuomo, the 49-year-old TV newsman tweeted that he has suffered from fever, chills and shortness of breath and will be doing his shows from his basement, where he has quarantined himself.

He said he is worried about infecting his wife and children but added: ‘We will all beat this by being smart and tough and united!’

‘Luckily we caught it early enough,’ the governor said. ‘But it’s my family, it’s your family, it’s all of our families. But this virus is that insidious, and we must keep that all in mind.’

In the smoldering hot spot of Louisiana, the death toll climbed to 239.

Louisiana and Michigan were running out of ventilators, despite promises by the White House of more equipment.

Cuomo described the bidding for ventilators as like being ‘on eBay.’

Louisiana’s governor said the hard-hit New Orleans region is on track to run out of breathing machines by the weekend and hospital beds a week later.

New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks as the Navy Hospital Ship USNS Comfort arrives in Manhattan’s Pier 90 +18
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo speaks as the Navy Hospital Ship USNS Comfort arrives in Manhattan’s Pier 90

The hospital ship has been drafted in to help relieve the strain on local hospitals with its 1,000 beds and 1,200 personnel +18
The hospital ship has been drafted in to help relieve the strain on local hospitals with its 1,000 beds and 1,200 personnel

The Trump administration has committed to sending 150 ventilators from the national stockpile, but the state hasn´t received an arrival date.

Michigan said it needs 5,000 to 10,000 more.

Meanwhile, a senior military general said the Pentagon has not yet delivered any of the 2,000 ventilators it offered to the Department of Health and Human Services two weeks ago because HHS has asked it to wait while the agency determines where the devices should go.

In Florida, the Holland America cruise line pleaded with state officials to let two ships dock and carry off the sick and the dead.

Dozens aboard have reported flu-like symptoms, and four people have died.

Customers stand on line outside Whole Foods Market located at the corner of West 125th Street and Malcom X Boulevard in Harlem, New York, on March 31 wearing masks +18
Customers stand on line outside Whole Foods Market located at the corner of West 125th Street and Malcom X Boulevard in Harlem, New York, on March 31 wearing masks

Health care workers test people at a coronavirus testing site setup by the the Florida National Guard in the parking lot of the Hard Rock stadium on March 30 +18
Health care workers test people at a coronavirus testing site setup by the the Florida National Guard in the parking lot of the Hard Rock stadium on March 30

But Gov. Ron DeSantis said on Fox News: ‘We cannot afford to have people who are not even Floridians dumped into South Florida using up those valuable resources.’

As the crisis continues to hot up in the U.S., China reported just one new death from the coronavirus and 48 new cases, all of them from overseas.

In Wuhan, people were ready to ‘revenge shop’ as the city that was once at the very center of the outbreak reopened for business.

However, Dr. Takeshi Kasai, the World Health Organization’s regional director for the Western Pacific, cautioned that the risk in Asia and the Pacific is not gone.

‘This is going to be a long-term battle and we cannot let down our guard,’ Kasai said.

Most of China’s 3,309 deaths were in Hubei province, in the outbreak epicenter Wuhan.

A body wrapped in plastic is loaded onto a refrigerated container truck used as a temporary morgue at Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn +18
A body wrapped in plastic is loaded onto a refrigerated container truck used as a temporary morgue at Brooklyn Hospital Center in Brooklyn

A hospital employee transfers a body on a forklift to a temporary mobile morgue, put in place due to lack of space at the hospital +18
A hospital employee transfers a body on a forklift to a temporary mobile morgue, put in place due to lack of space at the hospital

However, experts and politicians have cast doubt on the numbers coming out of China, and have even accused the country of lying and covering up key information during virtually every stage of its coronavirus response.

Beijing initially tried to cover up the virus by punishing medics who discovered it, denying it could spread person-to-person and delaying a lockdown of affected regions – meaning early opportunities to control the spread were lost.

Then, once the virus began spreading, the Communist Party began censoring public information about it and spread disinformation overseas – including suggesting that US troops could have been the initial carriers.

Even now, prominent politicians have warned that infection and death totals being reported by the regime are likely to be wrong – with locals in the epicenter of Wuhan suggesting the true tolls could be ten times higher.

Chinese health officials admitted Tuesday that more than 1,500 cases of the virus involving asymptomatic people that had not been previously reported.

Worldwide, more than 800,000 people have been infected and over 40,000 have died, according to the tally from Johns Hopkins University.

Italy and Spain have been some of the hardest hit, accounting for half the deaths so far.

Italy reported that the infection rate appears to be leveling off and new cases could start declining, but that the crisis is far from over.

Two cruise ships are anchored offshore past a lifeguard tower in Miami Beach +18
Two cruise ships are anchored offshore past a lifeguard tower in Miami Beach

Neighbors line up for free food staples outside Santa Ana primary school in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, March 31, as people stay home from work amid the spread of the new coronavirus +18
Neighbors line up for free food staples outside Santa Ana primary school in Asuncion, Paraguay, Tuesday, March 31, as people stay home from work amid the spread of the new coronavirus