Virus in brief: Projections for US death toll trending downward. Get caught up on the latest developments

Virus in brief: Projections for US death toll trending downward. Get caught up on the latest developments.

https://madison.com/news/national/virus-in-brief-projections-for-us-death-toll-trending-downward-get-caught-up-on-the/article_53266b7a-8889-5b06-888e-030c311964bf.html#utm_source=madison.com&utm_campaign=%2Fnewsletter-templates%2Fbreaking&utm_medium=PostUp&utm_content=cab7896c922d81b2684715688d0c28c8f5dabaca

Excerpt: The main model used by the White House and pretty much everyone else to predict coronavirus trends was updated Wednesday to show far fewer projected US deaths from Covid-19 — down to 60,415 people by August, from the 82,000 the model showed on Tuesday (which was already lower than previous projections). New data on the pandemic's trajectory — from the United States and around the world — has been fed into the model almost every day, driving the changes. And the downward adjustment suggests that social distancing may be working better than expected in some places. The updated model assumes social distancing measures, including the closure of schools and businesses, will remain in place until August. But other measures could replace those, including mass screening, contact tracing and selective quarantines.