Trump says US will have ‘substantially under’ 100,000 deaths from coronavirus, lower than initial estimates

President Donald Trump said Friday that the projected number of deaths related to the coronavirus will be "substantially under" early estimates that indicated 100,000 people in the U.S. could die from COVID-19. 

"The minimum number was 100,000 lives and I think we'll be substantially under that number," Trump said during a White House press conference. "Hard to believe that if you had 60,000, you can never be happy, but that's a lot fewer than we were originally told and thinking."

Trump said early estimates indicated the U.S. could have 100,000 to 200,000 deaths from the coronavirus and up to 2.2 million if the U.S. didn't take any action to control the pandemic. He said states like New York have recently reported declining hospital admissions and nationwide the number of new cases is flattening, "substantially suggesting we're near the peak."

"We'll see what it ends up being but it looks like we're headed to a number substantially below the 100,000 that would be the low mark, and I hope that bears out," Trump said. 

This is a developing story. Please check back later for updates. 

Source: cnbc.com