Researchers have estimated that over 145,000 people could die of Covid-19 in the United States by August, raising their grim forecast by more than 5,000 fatalities in a matter of days.
On Friday, the widely cited Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington projected 140,496 deaths by August from Covid-19.
The university has now raised that figure to 145,728 The new estimate came on the same day that Texas reported its highest number of hospitalisations so far in the pandemic and 22 US states showed at least a small rise in the number of new confirmed cases, according to a count kept by Johns Hopkins University.