June 25 (UPI) — The U.S. death toll from the deadly and infectious coronavirus will likely reach 150,000 next month, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said.
The CDC released the week’s national ensemble forecast on Wednesday predicting between 130,000 and 150,000 American lives will be lost to COVID-19 amid the pandemic ending July 18.
The United States leads the world by far in both coronavirus infections and deaths at 2.3 million cases and nearly 122,000 fatalities, according to Johns Hopkins University.
The virus first emerged late December in the central Chinese city of Wuhan with the United States diagnosing its first cases in mid-January.
Comprised of 20 individual national forecasts, the ensemble prediction shows new deaths reported over the next four weeks will likely surpass the number reported over the previous month in 13 states, including Arizona, Arkansas, California, Florida, Hawaii, Missouri, Nevada, North Carolina, Oklahoma, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Utah.
“For other states, the number of new deaths is expected to be similar to the number seen in the previous four weeks or to decrease slightly,” the federal agency said.
The prediction was announced on the same day the CDC said there were at least 34,313 new COVID-19 cases recorded in the previous 24 hours — the country’s third-highest single-day total. However, Johns Hopkins had it at more than 34,700, placing it second to only April 24 when more than 36,400 cases were recorded.
The health departments of California, Florida, Texas, Oklahoma and South Carolina said Wednesday that they each recorded single-day highs over the previous 24 hours. Meanwhile, more than two dozen states are experiencing an upward trend in new infections, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
California, which has the second-highest number of infections at 190,222, reported 7,149 new cases over Tuesday, which shattered its previous record of more than 5,500 set the day prior.
In Florida, health officials registered 5,508 new infections over the previous 24 hours, beating its record of 4,049 cases reported over Friday. The state now has 109,014 cases.
Texas said Wednesday it recorded 5,551 cases over the previous 24, besting Its previous record, set the day before, at 5,489, for a total of 125,921 cases.
Oklahoma also reported a 24-hour high of 482 new cases, lifting its total 11,510. And South Carolina announced 1,291 new cases over Tuesday for a total of 27,842.
