WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump has extended his stay-at-home guidelines until the end of April, international media reports have said.

Trump’s reversal comes at a time when the U.S. death toll topped 2,460 from the novel coronavirus, a Reuters tally, with more than 141,000 cases.

President Trump said in a coronavirus briefing in the White House Rose Garden that the highest point of death rate is most likely to hit in two weeks.

He said nothing would be worse than announcing victory before the victory is won.

He asked Americans, “The better you do, the faster this whole nightmare will end.”

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, had said that the pandemic could ultimately kill between 100,000 and 200,000 people in US if mitigation was not successful.

(With inputs from Agencies)