Getty Images Copyright: Getty Images A New Yorker waits outside a Brooklyn hospital to be tested Image caption: A New Yorker waits outside a Brooklyn hospital to be tested

There was no sugar-coating it this time. No optimistic talk of miracle cures or Easter-time business re-openings. There was just the cold, hard reality of the facts on the ground.

“I want every American to be prepared for the hard days that lie ahead,” a grave-faced Donald Trump told the nation on Tuesday afternoon. "This is going to be a very, very painful two weeks."

How painful? The number of deaths, based on current projections, is between 100,000 and 200,000.

Mr Trump tried to frame this news as best he could, noting that the projections for US casualties if the government had done nothing were in the millions.

“A lot of people were saying 'think of it as the flu', but it’s not the flu,” he said. “It’s vicious.”

Of course, it was just a week ago the president himself was making exactly such comparisons, noting that the early fatality numbers were much less than those from the flu or even automobile accidents.

Now, however, the seriousness of the situation has hit home. He spoke of checking in on a friend who was in the hospital with the virus - "a little older, and he’s heavy, but he’s tough person" - only to find out he was now in a coma.

“I spoke to some of my friends, and they can’t believe what they’re seeing,” he said.

Getty Images Copyright: Getty Images

Trump’s change of attitude also extended to some of his recent political feuds. Just days after attacking Democratic Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, mocking her name and calling her incompetent on Twitter, the president said he had a “really great conversation” with her and detailed the support the federal government was providing her state.

On Friday, he had suggested that if state leaders were not “appreciative” of him, he wouldn’t talk to them. On Tuesday, he recounted conversations with Democratic governors in California and Louisiana.

The new call from the White House was to continue the current mitigation efforts for an additional 30 days; that even if things go from bad to worse in the weeks to come, the efforts will pay off. It will, however, be a long, slow grind.