An influential coronavirus model often cited by the White House coronavirus task force has significantly reduced its U.S. death toll and hospital resource usage projections.
The Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at Washington University lowered its death toll projection by nearly 20,000 Wednesday, and now predicts that just over 60,000 Americans will die in the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic. The IHME model also lowered its predictions for the number of hospital beds and ventilators that will be needed on the country’s projected peak usage date by one-third each — now at 94,249 and 16,524, respectively.