Dec. 24 (UPI) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Wednesday it predicts COVID-19-related deaths in the United States to near 420,000 by Jan. 16.
The CDC on Wednesday released its national ensemble forecast compiled from data retrieved from 36 modeling groups producing statistics that predict the nation’s death toll to the pandemic to between 378,000 and 419,000.
In the last of those four weeks, the CDC said it expects to see an additional 16,400 to 27,600 people to die in that seven-day period.
According to a live tracker of the virus by Johns Hopkins University, which provided data that made up the CDC’s prediction, the U.S. death toll Wednesday stood at 325,829. Its caseload was 18.4 million, the Baltimore-based university said.
The forecast predicts newly reported deaths in 16 jurisdictions will increase compared to the previous month while only seven jurisdictions will see fewer deaths compared to a month previous.
On Tuesday, the United States reported 3,400 deaths, its second deadliest day on record after more than 3,600 people died to the virus on Dec. 16.
The United States and Pfizer reached a deal Wednesday, securing the sickest country to the an additional 100 million doses of its COVID-19 vaccine.
