Coronavirus: The next few weeks will be "very, very difficult", warns Donald Trump

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The United States is preparing for an unprecedented death toll. At least 780 people died from the coronavirus epidemic on Wednesday alone, and the peak of the pandemic has not yet been reached. The President has warned: the worst is yet to come.

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With our correspondent in Washington, Anne Corpet

" I want the Americans to prepare for the difficult days ahead," warns the president. We are going to have two very hard weeks. Donald Trump's tone is serious and even if he evokes the light shining at the end of the tunnel, he repeats: " It will be two very, very painful weeks. "

Dr. Deborah Birx then presents a diagram and the projections made by the White House. " We think there will be between 100,000 and 200,000 dead ," she warns, " but we hope to do better than that. On the diagram, the curve indicates that if the containment measures are not respected, the balance sheet could increase to more than two million deaths.

The doctor mentions cities that, like New York, are likely to become centers of uncontrollable contagion: Los Angeles, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Houston.

Donald Trump believes that he has done a good job to avoid the worst , and cites the two million deaths that would have occurred without his action. But he radically changed his tone and repeats that " these two to three weeks will be very hard, they will be hellish ".

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• Coronavirus
• United States
• Donald trump

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