Donald Trump Says ‘There Will Be a Lot of Death’ This Week as Coronavirus Crisis Worsens

During a press conference on Saturday, President Donald Trump addressed the United States' continued efforts to combat the spread of the coronavirus. While he discussed his task force's response to the crisis as well as the possible opening of the country, he also issued a sobering statement regarding what Americans can expect in the upcoming week regarding this pandemic. According to Fox News, the president said that this upcoming week will be a tough one in regards to the number of coronavirus related deaths that could occur.

"This will probably be the toughest week -- between this week and next week," Trump said on Saturday, according to the publication. "There will be a lot of death, unfortunately. But a lot less death than if this wasn't done," he added regarding the national precautions underway. "But there will be death." His statements come as the number of Americans who have been infected with the coronavirus has passed 300,000. Despite his comments about the upcoming weeks being a potentially grave turning point amidst this crisis, he still addressed his insistence on opening up the country and said that it may be "sooner rather than later."

Elsewhere during the press conference, the president related that he had been in contact with commissioners of most major sports in the country about the coronavirus crisis and mentioned that he wants fans "back in the arena" as soon as they can be, according to ABC News.

"You know, they want to see basketball and baseball and football and hockey. They want to see their sports. They want to go out onto the golf courses and breathe nice clean, beautiful fresh air," Trump said. "No, I can't tell you a date, but I think it's going to be sooner rather than later."

He also stressed that he wants Americans to go back to work as soon as possible, despite noting the dangers relating to this global health crisis.

"It has to get open. This country was not designed to be closed," he said. "Think of it. We're paying people not to go to work, how about that? How does that play?"

While Trump focused on the topic of opening up the country, medical officials on his own coronavirus task force have cautioned against "opening" the country back up before this crisis is under better control. As ABC News went on to report, Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned that there could be a resurgence of the illness if the country is not able to get it under control.

"When you get it down, you need to make sure it doesn't resurge," Fauci said. "That will require the ability to test, to identify, to isolate and to do contact tracing. That's what we have to have in place and hopefully we will at the time that we then pull back."

"As we end this week and we go into next week, you will be seeing -- and we should not be surprised, because the kinetics of how this virus works -- is that we're going to be seeing that there are going to be deaths that are going to continue to go up, he added.