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NEW YORK/ LOS ANGELES — The U.S. government raced on Tuesday to build hundreds of makeshift hospitals near major cities to ease the strain on overwhelmed healthcare systems as President Donald Trump predicted a “very painful” two weeks ahead.

The death toll in the United States, tallied by Reuters, stood at 800 for Tuesday, the most for a single day so far.

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Nearly half the fatalities were in New York state, the epicenter of the coronavirus pandemic, and New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio pleaded for reinforcements from the Trump administration.

“This is the point at which we must be prepared for next week, when we expect a huge increase in the number of cases. What I asked very clearly, last week, was for military medical personnel to be deployed here,” de Blasio said at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Queens, where a field hospital was being hastily built.

The tennis center is home to the U.S. Open Tennis Championship, scheduled to take place this year on August 24.