CDC forecasts 20,000 more coronavirus deaths by mid-October
About 20,000 more people will die from the coronavirus by mid-October, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention predicts.
The CDC projects 214,000 to 226,000 total coronavirus deaths in the U.S. by Oct. 17, according to a report released this week.
The U.S. has seen more than 203,000 coronavirus deaths as of Friday afternoon, according to Johns Hopkins University.
As Americans go back to work and school, many states have seen a rise in COVID-19 cases, Axios reported. The U.S. now has an average of roughly 43,000 new cases a day, a 16% jump from a week ago, according to the publication.
About 700 Americans with COVID-19 are dying each day, roughly the same as in early July, The Hill reported.
“We all basically have come back into the public domain. We are experiencing pandemic fatigue in a major way, and we’re seeing weddings, funerals, bars, restaurants, sporting events,” said Michael Osterholm, an epidemiologist who runs the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota, according to The Hill.
The biggest increases were in the Midwest and the West. Arizona, Colorado, Minnesota, Montana, Utah, Texas and Wyoming all saw their cases increase by at least 60% in the last week, Axios reported Thursday.
Health experts have expressed concerns that a second coronavirus wave could occur during the colder months, according to CNBC. That’s because respiratory illnesses can spike during the winter, and people will be driven indoors by the weather and there will be less social distancing.
“It is not an unreasonable hypothesis to think that it will get worse in the winter,” Dr. Simon Clarke, associate professor in cellular microbiology at the University of Reading, told CNBC. “It is not a ridiculous notion to float, there just isn’t any evidence for it. We can’t have any evidence of seasonality because we have known about it for less than a year. We haven’t been through one cycle yet.”
