Models project 61,000 COVID-19 deaths in US: White House Response Coordinator

Models available to US health experts now project that mortality due to the novel coronavirus (COVID-19) will be at around 61,000 people, significantly lower than earlier forecasts, White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator Deborah Birx said.

"They have consistently decreased the mortality from over almost 90,000, down to 81,000 and now to 61,000," Birx said at a daily briefing on Wednesday evening.

"That is modeled on what America is doing, that's what is happening," Birx added.

During the presser, President Donald Trump said that the United States has a very good chance of beating "very substantially" earlier projections of 100,000 to 240,000 deaths.

Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in the same briefing, gave an update about the State Department's efforts on the COVID-19 front.

Pompeo said 50,000 Americans have been repatriated since January because of the COVID-19, adding that thousands of Americans are still stranded overseas.

The Secretary also told reporters that the United States is re-evaluating its financial contribution to the World Health Organisation (WHO).

On Tuesday, Trump said that the WHO failed to take appropriate action to address the COVID-19 outbreak in its early stages and that US funding to the agency would be put on hold.

The United States has more than 424,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 and more than 14,500 deaths due to the disease as of Wednesday evening, according to data published by Johns Hopkins University.