Netanyahu: Trump’s talk of 100,000-250,000 dead in the US is an optimistic forecast

Netanyahu, who has just emerged from voluntarily quarantine after an aide tested positive for the virus, says Israel is at a fateful juncture in the battle against the pandemic.

It can join the countries “that appear to have braked the coronavirus,” he says. “But it risks, heaven forbid, a slide toward those countries that already have thousands of dead.”

“In the past day in New York, someone is dying every four minutes,” he says.

Noting President Donald Trump’s warning that the US faces 100,000 to 250,000 deaths in the next few weeks, Netanyahu says: “That’s the optimistic forecast.”

In Israeli terms, “that would be equivalent to 5,000 dead here.”

“We’re starting to see signs that maybe… we’re on the path to gaining control of the pandemic,” he says, “but it’s too early to say that with certainty.”

He also calls again for a “national emergency government.”