Study: There Will Be 3 Times More Deaths Due to COVID-19 Worldwide by 2021

The coronavirus is not leaving the news anytime soon. The situation seems to be deteriorating all around the world with an upward resurgence of coronavirus cases. For those who preferred to remain optimistic, here's something that will dampen their spirits. An American study has just unveiled projections that state that the number of deaths due to the virus should triple by January 1, 2021.

These figures were released by the Institute for Health Metric and Evaluation based at the University of Washington. This is an independent health research organisation launched in 2007 in part through the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. According to the institute, there will be 2,811,777 deaths worldwide by the end of the year compared to 880,955 today.

The projections include two other scenarios. The first is one where social distancing measures are respected, such as the wearing of masks. This would save nearly 769,871 lives. The second is simply the opposite case. The number of deaths would increase significantly and could be four times higher than today.

The situation is not improving in the UK

The figures once again confirmed the upward trend in COVID-19 cases with almost 3,000 new cases in 24 hours against almost 2,000 on Friday and 1,800 on Saturday.

For the moment, the number of deaths has reached 41,554. According to the Institute for Health Metric and Evaluation, the forecast is as many as 70,000 deaths by January 1, 2021.