U.S. President Donald Trump said on Sunday that the peak death rate in the United States from the coronavirus pandemic was likely to hit in two weeks and he extended "social distancing" guidelines until April 30.

Meanwhile, Dr. Anthony Fauci, who leads research into infectious diseases at the National Institutes of Health, issued a cautious prediction that COVID-19 could claim as many as 200,000 lives in the United States.

"Easter should be the peak number," Trump said of the holiday which falls on April 12.

"The modelling estimates that the peak in death rate is likely to hit in two weeks," Trump said during a briefing at the White House.

"It should start coming down – and hopefully very substantially – from that point," he said.

Trump said that he was extending the government's "social distancing" guidelines until April 30 to "slow the spread" of the virus, which has infected nearly 140,000 in the country and left more than 2,600 dead.

He said if the country can hold down coronavirus deaths to 100,000 to 200,000 from a possible 2.2 million total would mean "we had one a very good job."

Dr. Fauci, who was also at Trump's Sunday briefing, told CNN earlier Sunday that models predicting a million or more U.S. deaths were "not impossible, but very, very unlikely."

He offered a rough estimate of 100,000 to 200,000 deaths and "millions of cases."

But at the Rose Garden briefing, Fauci softened his dire predictions, saying they were based on models that were run to show the worst-case scenario if Americans did not follow stay-at-home directives.

"We feel the mitigation we are doing right now is having an effect," Fauci said. "The decision to extend this mitigation process until the end of April is a wise and prudent decision."

A sharp escalation of COVID-19 has hit the U.S. with explosive force in recent days and weeks, following a path seen earlier in parts of Asia and Europe.

It took a month for the U.S. to move from its first confirmed death, on February 29, to its 1,000th. But in two days this week that number doubled, to over 2,600 on Sunday. The case total of 136,880 – as tallied by Johns Hopkins University – is the world's highest.

'A sharp escalation ahead'

New York City, the epicenter of the outbreak in the U.S, has recorded 672 deaths so far. Hospital staff have issued desperate pleas for more protective equipment.

Mayor Bill de Blasio said Sunday that his city's hospitals have enough protective equipment – but not enough of the life-saving ventilators – for only another week.

He said he had made a direct request to President Trump and the U.S. military "to find us immediately more military medical personnel and get them here by next Sunday."

De Blasio said: "we're talking about a sharp escalation ahead."

Washington state Governor Jay Inslee described "a desperate need for all kinds of equipment." He said the nation needed to be put on an essentially wartime footing.

Inslee pushed back against the notion, advocated earlier by Trump, that the country could begin returning to work by Easter.

"There are some hard realities we have to understand," he said on CNN. "Unless we continue a very vigorous social distancing program in my state, this will continue to spread like wildfire."

'Worse by the minute'

As state and local official described increasingly desperate supplies shortages in hospitals, Trump accused hospitals of hoarding ventilators that are in scarce supply across the country, adding any hospitals not using the devices must release them.

But the president didn't cite any evidence to back his accusation. It was also unclear which medical facilities he was referring to.

When was asked by a PBS correspondent on his earlier remarks of questioning states' need of ventilators, Trump lashed out the reporter, saying "Don't be threatening." 

The reporter, Yamiche Alcindor, raised her first question quoting the president from his interview with Fox News on Thursday about New York state Governor Andrew Cuomo: "I have a feeling that a lot of the numbers that are being said in some areas are just bigger than they are going to be. I don't believe you need 40,000 or 30,000 ventilators."

Trump said, "When journalists get up and ask questions that are so threatening..."

He also further questioned the need of face masks suggesting hospitals are lying about the number of masks they need and told journalists should look into this.

"How do you go from 10 to 20 to 30,000, to 300,000 – even though this is different? Something is going on. And you ought to look into it as reporters. Where are the masks going?"

Asked on CNN whether she believed that Trump, by initially downplaying the severity of coronavirus, had cost American lives, House speaker Nancy Pelosi said "Yes, I'm saying that."

Trump's "continued delay in getting equipment to where it's needed is deadly," she said.

Speaking in the Rose Garden, Trump urged American people to follow the social distancing guidelines.

"Nothing would be worse than declaring victory before the victory is won," Trump said. "It's very important that everyone strongly follow the guidelines."

He said he expects the country "will be well on our way to recovery" by June 1 – dropping his previous target of Easter.

He also said there would be an "important" announcement on Tuesday about the government's plans and strategy going forward.

'High TV ratings'

On Sunday, the president also took to Twitter to vaunt the television ratings of his daily briefings on the coronavirus pandemic gripping the country.

"Because the 'Ratings' of my News Conferences etc. are so high... the Lamestream Media is going CRAZY," he tweeted.

"President Trump is a ratings hit," he said quoting, the first sentence in an article in The New York Times.

But what Trump omitted was the remainder of the sentence.

The full sentence read: "President Trump is a ratings hit, and some journalists and public health experts say that could be a dangerous thing."

The newspaper went on to say that Trump "has repeatedly delivered information that doctors and public health officials have called ill informed, misleading or downright wrong."

Trump ignored those comments and focused on the numbers saying viewership for his briefings was similar to that of Monday Night Football or the finale of the hit show "The Bachelor."

He also lashed out at the media. "The Lamestream Media wants us to fail. That will NEVER happen!" "Polls are showing tremendous disapproval of Lamestream Media coverage of the Virus crisis. The Fake News just hasn't figured that out."

(With inputs from Reuters and AFP) 

(Cover: U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters at the White House in Washington, U.S., March 29, 2020. /Reuters)