Incoming CDC Director: US Will Likely Reach 500K Deaths by February

Incoming CDC Director Rochelle Wallensky says the U.S. will likely reach 500,000 deaths by mid-February.

"Unfortunately, I do – nearly 4,000 deaths a day, almost 400,000 deaths total – by the middle of February, we expect half a million deaths in this country," Wallensky told CBS's "Face the Nation," when asked by host Margaret Brennan whether she agreed with outgoing CDC Director Robert Redfield on his forecasted death count.

"That doesn't speak to the tens of thousands of people who are living with a yet uncharacterized syndrome after they've been recovered. And we still yet haven't seen the ramifications of what happened from the holiday travel, from holiday gathering in terms of high rates of hospitalizations and the deaths thereafter. So, yes, I think we still have some dark weeks ahead."

Nearly 400,000 people in the U.S. have died from COVID-19 and 23.9 million have been infected.

A recent coronavirus projection from the University of Washington estimates more than 566,000 deaths in the U.S. by May 1.

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