Medics Expect Coronavirus To Expand In US For At Least 3 Weeks - Joint Staff Surgeon

WASHINGTON (UrduPoint News / Sputnik - 26th March, 2020) US medics forecast a coronavirus expansion to continue across the country within an available three week planning horizon and advocate existing restrictions as the best way to curb the outbreak, US Joint Staff surgeon Paul Friedrichs told reporters on Wednesday.

"I just got an update on modeling factors which very clearly said that they are unable to forecast beyond three weeks from the data that they had," Friedrichs said at a Pentagon briefing. "From a three week perspective based on the planning factors that we have we think we are going to continue to see this - no surprise - continue to grow."

President Donald Trump suggested earlier the US and its economy may be freed of coronavirus-related restrictions by Easter, celebrated on April 12 - just in 18 days.

"We think the best way to limit that growth or to mitigate that growth are the measures that we have been talking about. I don't think there is a great deal of value speculating on a particular date," Friedrichs said. "What we need to do is focus on what we individually and collectively can do today to mitigate this outbreak."

If successful in doing that, Americans may "in three or four weeks" see positive changes with the outbreak flattened and a number of cases going down, he added.