Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Anthony Fauci, US President Donald Trump and Response coordinator for White House Coronavirus Task Force Deborah Birx leave the unscheduled briefing after a Coronavirus Task Force meeting at the White House on April 5, 2020, in Washington, DC. (AFP photo)

US President Donald Trump expressed hope on Sunday that the United States was seeing a leveling-off of the coronavirus crisis in some of the nation’s hot spots, saying Americans were starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel.

New York, the hardest-hit state, reported on Sunday that for the first time in a week, deaths had fallen slightly from the day before, but there were still nearly 600 new fatalities and more than 7,300 new cases.

Maybe that’s a good sign, Trump told reporters at a White House briefing, referring to the drop in fatalities in New York.

The United States faces a critical week in the coronavirus crisis, with the US surgeon general warning on Sunday: This is going to be the hardest and the saddest week of most Americans’ lives, quite frankly.

White House medical experts have forecast that between 100,000 to 240,000 Americans could die in the pandemic, even if sweeping orders to stay home are followed.

New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said on Sunday that new hospitalizations had fallen by 50 percent over the previous 24 hours, but he cautioned it was not yet clear whether the crisis was reaching a plateau in the state, which has 4,159 deaths and more than 122,000 cases.

We’re starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel, Trump said. But he added: You can never be happy when so many people are dying.

(Source: Reuters)