Trump, White House dismiss data predicting surge in coronavirus deaths in US

Washington, May 6 (PTI) President Donald Trump and the White House on Tuesday rejected a report suggesting the daily US death toll due to the coronavirus could reach 3,000 in June.

The US death toll from the coronavirus was nearing 70,000 on Tuesday, and there were more than 1.2 million confirmed cases.

However, several states have started reporting flattening of the curve decline in new cases and death rates. As a result, several states have announced plans to open up their economy in a phased manner.

In its report, Johns Hopkins University projected new coronavirus cases in the US reaching 200,000 daily by June 1 and fatalities around 3,000.

Those projections are with no mitigation. We are doing mitigation, Trump told reporters before boarding Air Force One at Joint Base Andrews on his way to Arizona.

In a statement, White House Press Secretary Kayleigh McEnany said that the Johns Hopkins’ study being pushed around by the media as factual is based on faulty assumptions and is in no way representative of any federal government projections.

John Hopkins University in a separate statement said that the research conducted by it for Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) was to assist in planning for various scenarios and was not to be used for the official forecast.

The New York Times was the first newspaper to report about it on Monday.

As Johns Hopkins stated, should not be taken as a forecast, McEnany said.

This study considered zero mitigation, meaning it was conducted as though no federal guidelines were in place, no contract tracing, no expansion of testing, while removing all shelter in place protocols laid out in the phased approach of the Opening Up America Again guidelines for individuals with co-morbidities, she said.

The media should be more responsible in its reporting and give the full set of information to the American public, McEnany said.