A newly published U.S. coronavirus death projection estimates almost 300,000 COVID-19 fatalites by December, but the doom could be 66,000 less if 95% of people wear face coverings, CNN reported Thursday.
The current U.S. death count is 159,990, according to Johns Hopkins University, which means the death total in the U.S. will roughly double in four months. The first recorded U.S. COVID-19 death came in February, around seven months ago.
"The U.S. forecast totals 295,011 deaths by December," according to a statement by the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, per CNN.
This is a hedge on the number, saying if 95% of Americans wear face coverings, the projected total will be more than 66,000 deaths less at 228,271, per the report.
"We know that it's good (to wear a mask). We know that it can decrease transmission, (we've) talked about that for months," CNN Chief Medical Correspondent Dr. Sanjay Gupta said. "What this model is doing is saying here is how much of a difference it could make."
A Center for Disease Control and Prevention model forecasts 181,031 deaths by Aug. 29, per the report.
"State-level ensemble forecasts predict that the number of reported new deaths per week may increase over the next four weeks in Hawaii and Puerto Rico and may decrease in Florida, Mississippi, New Mexico, the Northern Mariana Islands, Ohio, Texas, Vermont and the Virgin Islands," according to the CDC's forecasting website.
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
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