President Donald Trump prepared Americans for a coming surge in coronavirus cases, calling COVID-19 a plague and saying the U.S. is facing a "very, very painful two weeks." "This could be a hell of a bad two weeks. This is going to be a very bad two, and maybe three weeks. This is going to be three weeks like we've never seen before," Trump said at a White House press conference Tuesday. White House officials are projecting between 100,000 and 240,000 deaths in the U.S. with coronavirus fatalities peaking over the next two weeks. "When you look at night, the kind of death that has been caused by this invisible enemy, it's incredible." The U.S. has more coronavirus cases than any other country across the globe with 184,000 confirmed infections, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. New York has now become the new epicenter of the outbreak in the world with 75,795 confirmed cases as of Tuesday morning, more reported infections than China's Hubei province where the coronavirus emerged in December.

President Donald Trump speaks while flanked by Dr. Anthony Fauci (L), director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, and Vice President Mike Pence during the daily coronavirus task force briefing in the Brady Briefing room at the White House on March 31, 2020 in Washington, DC. Win McNamee | Getty Images

Earlier in the day, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo said the outbreak in the state may not peak for three weeks. "I'm tired of being behind this virus. We've been behind this virus from day one," the governor said in Albany. "We underestimated this virus. It's more powerful, it's more dangerous than we expected." Trump, who grew up near New York City's Elmhurst hospital in Queens, said no one can believe officials are setting up refrigerator trucks as temporary mortuaries outside the hospital. Trump said New York "got a late start" in rolling out its mitigation efforts. New York City is setting up a handful of makeshift field hospitals to house coronavirus patients at the Jacob K. Javits Center, in Central Park and at the tennis courts in Queens that host the U.S. Open. De Blasio said the city is working with the federal government, the hotel industry and various other businesses to turn other buildings into potential medical facilities. More than 1,000 people in New York City alone have already died from the coronavirus, according to data updated at 5 p.m. ET by the NYC Health Department. "This is going to be the roughest three weeks we've ever had in this country," Trump said. "I wanted as few as a number of people to die as possible. And that's all we're working on." Dr. Deborah Birx , coordinator for the White House coronavirus task force, and Dr. Anthony Fauci said they are still projecting between 100,000 and 200,000 deaths in the U.S. with a peak in fatalities over the next two weeks. A slide presented at the press conference showed as many as 240,000 deaths.

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