COVID-19 Forecasts: Deaths

Reported and forecasted new and total COVID-19 deaths as of July 26, 2021.

Interpretation of Forecasts of New and Total Deaths

• This week, ensemble forecasts of new reported COVID-19 deaths over the next 4 weeks included forecasts from 32 modeling groups, each of which contributed a forecast for new or total deaths for at least one jurisdiction.
• This week’s national ensemble predicts that the number of newly reported COVID-19 deaths will likely increase over the next 4 weeks, with 1,800 to 6,900 new deaths likely reported in the week ending August 21, 2021. The national ensemble predicts that a total of 619,000 to 633,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported by this date.
• The state- and territory-level ensemble forecasts predict that over the next 4 weeks, the number of newly reported deaths per week will likely increase in 11 jurisdictions, which are indicated in the forecast plots below. Trends in numbers of future reported deaths are uncertain or predicted to remain stable in the other states and territories.

National Forecast

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• The figures show the number of new (top row) and total (bottom row) COVID-19 deaths reported in the United States each week from May 22 through July 24 and forecasted over the next 4 weeks, through August 21.
• Models make various assumptions about the levels of social distancing and other interventions, which may not reflect recent changes in behavior. See model descriptions below for details on the assumptions and methods used to produce the forecasts.

Download national forecast data excel icon[XLS – 32 KB]

State Forecasts

State-level forecasts show the predicted number of new COVID-19 deaths for the next 4 weeks by state. Each state forecast figure uses a different scale due to differences in the number of COVID-19 deaths between states and only forecasts meeting a set of ensemble inclusion criteria are shown. Further details are available here: https://covid19forecasthub.org/doc/ensemble/external icon. Plots of the state-level ensemble forecast and the underlying data can be downloaded below.

Download state forecasts pdf icon[2 MB, 29 pages]

Download forecast data excel icon[CSV – 955 KB]

Additional forecast data and information on forecast submission are available at the COVID-19 Forecast Hubexternal icon.

Forecast Inclusion and Assumptions

The teams with forecasts included in the ensembles are displayed below. Forecasts are included when they meet a set of submission and data quality requirements, further described here: https://github.com/reichlab/covid19-forecast-hub#ensemble-modelexternal icon.

The forecasts make different assumptions about social distancing measures. Additional individual model details are available here: https://github.com/cdcepi/COVID-19-Forecasts/blob/master/COVID-19_Forecast_Model_Descriptions.mdexternal icon. Details on the ensemble’s accuracy in short-term predictions and its usefulness as a real-time tool to help guide policy and planning can be found here: Ensemble Forecasts of Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) in the U.S.external icon

Intervention assumptions fall into multiple categories:

• These modeling groups make assumptions about how levels of social distancing will change in the future:
  • Columbia Universityexternal icon (Model: Columbia)
  • Institute of Health Metrics and Evaluationexternal icon (Model: IHME)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Operations Research Centerexternal icon (Model: MIT-ORC)
  • Predictive Science Inc.external icon (Model: PSI)
  • University of California, Los Angelesexternal icon (Model: UCLA)

• These modeling groups assume that existing social distancing measures will continue through the projected 4-week time period:
  • AIpertexternal icon (Model: AIpert)
  • Bob Paganoexternal icon (Model: BPagano)
  • Columbia University and University of North Carolinaexternal icon (Model: Columbia-UNC)
  • Georgia Institute of Technology, College of Computingexternal icon (Model: GT-DeepCOVID)
  • IEMexternal icon (Model: IEM)
  • Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Labexternal icon (Model: JHU-APL)
  • Johns Hopkins University, Center for Systems Science and Engineeringexternal icon  (Model: JHU-CSSE)
  • Johns Hopkins University, Infectious Disease Dynamics Labexternal icon (Model: JHU-IDD)
  • Karlen Working Groupexternal icon (Model: Karlen)
  • London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicineexternal icon (Model: LSHTM)
  • Los Alamos National Laboratoryexternal icon (Model: LANL)
  • Masaryk Universityexternal icon (Model: Masaryk)
  • MIT-Cassandraexternal icon (Model: MIT-Cassandra)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Institute for Data, Systems, and Societyexternal icon (Model: MIT-ISOLAT)
  • Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Laboratory of Computational Physiologyexternal icon (Model: MIT-LCP)
  • Microsoft AIexternal icon (Model: Microsoft)
  • Northeastern University, Laboratory for the Modeling of Biological and Socio-technical Systemsexternal icon (Model: MOBS)
  • Qi-Jun Hongexternal icon (Model: QJHong)
  • Robert Walravenexternal icon (Model: ESG)
  • Steve McConnellexternal icon (Model: CovidComplete)
  • University of Arizonaexternal icon (Model: UA)
  • University of California, Mercedexternal icon (Model: UCM)
  • University of California, San Diego and Northeastern Universityexternal icon (Model: UCSD-NEU)
  • University of Georgia, Center for the Ecology of Infectious Diseaseexternal icon (Model: UGA-CEID)
  • University of Massachusetts, Amherstexternal icon (Model: UMass-MB)
  • University of Michiganexternal icon (Model: UM)
  • University of Southern Californiaexternal icon (Model: USC)

¹ The full range of the prediction intervals is not visible for all state plots. Please see the forecast data for the full range of state-specific prediction intervals.