Donald Trump has warned the US faces a ‘ very painful’ two weeks as it battles to contain the spread of coronavirus (Picture: AP)

Donald Trump has warned that the US is going to face a ‘very painful two weeks’ as coronavirus diagnoses and deaths rocket across the country.

Leading a coronavirus briefing at the White House on Monday, President Trump said: ‘We are going to go through a very tough two weeks and then hopefully we’re going to start seeing some light at the end of the tunnel

‘This is going to be a very painful two weeks. when you look and see the kind of death caused by this invisible enemy, it’s incredible.

‘This is going to be a rough two week period.’




The president struck a much more somber tone than during other recent appearances as he told of his horror at seeing refrigerated trucks drafted in to serve as morgues at overstretched New York City hospitals.

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His comments were echoed by White House immunologist Dr Anthony Fauci who confirmed that diagnoses and deaths would rise in the coming weeks, with Dr Fauci insisting that social distancing was working, and that it needed to be observed for another month to bring the outbreak under control.

Dr Deborah Birx shared this graph showing how social distancing could help lower the number of people in the US killed by coronavirus (Picture: White House)

Referring to crisis-hit Elmhurst Hospital in Queens, New York, the president said: ‘What they’re doing with those trailers..they’re freezers, and nobody can even believe it’

Trump also urged Americans to follow social distancing guidelines, saying: ‘It’s a matter of life and death quite frankly.’

He spoke as the number of coronavirus diagnoses in the US rocketed to close to 190,000 on Tuesday evening, with at least 3,564 people killed by Covid-19.

Trump also asked coronavirus task force response coordinator Dr Deborah Birx to share a series of graphs illustrating the predicted course of the outbreak.

She repeated previous warnings that even extreme social distancing could still see Covid-19 kill between 100,000 and 200,000 Americans, adding: ‘(That is) still way too much.’