U.S. could reach 200,000 coronavirus deaths in September, expert says

The U.S. may see 200,000 deaths because of the coronavirus at some point in September, a leading expert said, while total U.S. coronavirus cases surpassed two million on Wednesday as governments relax restrictions.

Ashish Jha, the head of Harvard's Global Health Institute, told CNN in an interview on Wednesday that without drastic action, the number of U.S. deaths would march on.

"Even if we don't have increasing cases, even if we keep things flat, it's reasonable to expect that we're going to hit 200,000 deaths sometime during the month of September," Jha said. "And that's just through September. The pandemic won't be over in September." 

"I'm really worried about where we're going to be in the weeks and months ahead," he added.

Jha said that was directly tied to the fact the United States was the only major country to reopen without getting its case growth to a controlled level – a rate of people testing positive for the coronavirus remaining at five percent or lower for at least 14 days.

He said the deaths were not "something we have to be fated with" and could be prevented by ramping up testing and contact tracing, strict social distancing and widespread use of masks.