People walk in Central Park amid the coronavirus pandemic on March 30, 2021 in New York City. (Photo by Noam Galai/Getty Images) SEATTLE - A new model suggests that if 95% of Americans wear a mask, 14,000 lives could be saved over the summer from COVID-19 in the United States.The University of Washington Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation updated its COVID-19 projections last week.
Right now, researchers project that the country’s COVID-19 death toll could reach 618,523 by Aug 1. However, with nearly universal mask use, that number is predicted to go as low as 604,403 deaths.According to Johns Hopkins, more than 562 million Americans have died from the coronavirus since the pandemic began in March 2020.