VIDEO: For the first time in months, daily hospital admission levels and new COVID-19-related deaths in the United States are both projected to increase over the next four weeks, according to updated forecast models used by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The projected increases come after weeks of steady upticks in infections across the country, subsequent to the removal of masking requirements and mitigation measures in many states and cities. The forecast now predicts that approximately 5,000 deaths will occur over the next two weeks, with Ohio, New York and New Jersey projected to see the largest totals of daily deaths in the weeks to come.
"We are still in the middle of a pandemic, to be sure -- there's no confusion about that," Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, told Foreign Policy last week.