Trump-favored coronavirus model raises projected death toll to almost 135,000

A model from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington, which has been frequently used by the White House, is significantly increasing its forecasted number of COVID-19 deaths in the United States.

The institute said on Monday that after previously forecasting 72,433 U.S. deaths from COVID-19 by August, it will now be raising that projected death toll to almost 135,000, CNN reports.

"We are seeing, of course, a rise in projected deaths for several reasons," IHME professor Ali Mokdad told CNN on Monday. "One of them is increased mobility before the relaxation, premature relaxation of social distancing, we're adding more presumptive deaths as well, and we're seeing a lot of outbreaks in the Midwest, for example."

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This comes as numerous states throughout the country allow some nonessential businesses to reopen and after The New York Times reported on Monday that the Trump administration is privately forecasting the daily U.S. coronavirus death toll will rise to 3,000 by June. This is almost double the current number of about 1,750 deaths per day. President Trump during a town hall on Sunday suggested the COVID-19 death toll could reach 100,000 in the United States. "That's a horrible thing," he said. "We shouldn't lose one person out of this."