"The prediction is based on a very simple assumption that the counts will follow an exponential curve"

This reminds me of news reports from the 90s, where the big fear was that Chinese companies would totally take over Europe. The big Chinese breakthrough would happen 'next week', 'next year', 'next some arbitrary buffer that puts us just outside of the data'.

Corona might go exponential, but with the amount of effort being put into containment, I doubt it.