An ensemble forecast from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention published Wednesday predicts more than 62,000 additional people could die from Covid-19 over the next four weeks.
This is the first week that deaths have been predicted to have a stable or uncertain trend after predicted increases since the forecast published on Dec. 29.
The CDC included projections that indicate the number of deaths will slowly but steadily rise for the first three weeks, before dropping quickly in the last week.
The forecast predicts that there could be a total of 923,000 to 979,000 Covid-19 deaths in the US reported by Feb. 19.
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, coronavirus has killed at least 872,126 people in the United States.
The forecast could mean an average of 2,622 Covid-19 deaths a day, up from a current average of 2,258 per day, according to JHU data.
Hospitalizations are predicted to decrease for the first time after eight weeks of predicted increases, followed by one week of predicted stable or uncertain trends. CDC predicts that there will be 4,900 to 27,800 new confirmed Covid-19 hospital admissions likely reported on Feb. 18.
There are currently 150,178 people hospitalized with Covid-19, according to US Department of Health and Human Services data.
The forecast for cases did not predict an increase or decrease, or give a predicted number of cases.
“Recent case forecasts have shown low reliability, with more reported cases than expected falling outside the forecast prediction intervals for 1-, 2-, 3-, and 4-week ahead case forecasts. Therefore, case forecasts will continue to be collected and analyzed but will not be summarized until sustained improvements in performance are observed,” the CDC said.