People line up to get a test at Elmhurst Hospital due to coronavirus outbreak on March 24, 2020 in Queens, New York, United States. There are now more than 35,000 cases of COVID-19 in the United States as governments scramble to contain the spread.
Eduardo Munoz Alvarez | Getty Images
New U.S. government figures show coronavirus infections will spike during the summer if stay-at-home orders are lifted after 30 days as planned, the New York Times reported on Friday.
If President Donald Trump lifts shelter-in-place orders after 30 days, the death total is estimated to reach 200,000, the New York Times reported, citing new projections it obtained from the departments of Homeland Security and Health and Human Services.
The April 9 projections did not have dates for when shelter-in-place orders were delivered or dates for when spikes would hit, the newspaper said.
The projections outline different scenarios. Without any restrictions imposed to contain coronavirus – including school closings, shelter-in-place orders and social distancing, the death toll from coronavirus could have reached 300,000, it said.
But if the 30-day stay-at-home order is lifted, the death total is estimated to reach 200,000, the Times said, “even if schools remain closed until summer, 25 percent of the country continues to work from home and some social distancing continues.”
