The United States leads the world in the number of reported COVID-19 deaths and confirmed cases.
As of Thursday, there have been more than 1.2 million confirmed cases of the virus in the US. The US states of New York, New Jersey and Massachusetts have the highest death tolls, with more than 26,300, 8,800 and 4,500 fatalities, respectively. In New York, more than 55,000 people have recovered. Worldwide, there have been more than 3.8 million cases and more than 267,000 deaths as a result of the respiratory illness.
The US death toll continues to increase as dozens of US states have started lifting lockdown measures.
A new model from the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania predicts nearly 350,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US by the end of June and half a million jobs lost if states fully lift lockdown measures.
The model defines the “reopening” of all states as lifting all emergency declarations, stay-at-home orders and school closures, as well as easing restrictions on businesses and restaurants.
The model predicts that if states maintain the restrictions they had in place as of April 30, there will be around 117,000 COVID-19 deaths in the US by the end of June, and around 18.6 million jobs will be lost from May 1 to June 30.
Partially reopening states by lifting emergency declarations and stay-at-home orders would cause the death toll to reach 162,000 by June 30. In addition, around 14 million jobs would be lost between May 1 and June 30 under this third scenario.
