The global coronavirus death toll may increase five-fold by Christmas as cases surge across the world, according to experts.
Around 3.2 million more people could die by the beginning of next year under a 'worst case scenario' model drawn up by the University of Washington's School of Medicine.
Researchers at the school's Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) fear the total number of global Covid-19 deaths could stand at four million at the start of 2021.
Under the institute's 'worst case' model, there could be 916,688 deaths in India, 620,029 in the US and 287,635 in Japan. This forecast is based on governments around the world continuing to ease social distancing measures without improving mask-wearing rates.