The number of novel coronavirus-related deaths in the United States has surpassed 50,000, according to the latest numbers from Johns Hopkins University.

This comes as President Donald Trump prepares to hold a signing ceremony Friday for a bill providing a nearly $500 billion infusion of coronavirus spending, rushing new relief to employers and hospitals buckling under the strain of a pandemic.

While states like Utah, Tennessee, and Georgia move to ease lockdown restrictions in an attempt to stimulate their shuttered economies, the number of new cases being recorded daily is yet to drop.

A survey of infectious 21 disease modeling experts and researchers by Thomas McAndrew and Nicholas Reich at the University of Massachusetts Amherst makes for sobering reading. The experts predict the U.S. death rate to increase to approximately 70,000 by May 9, and to reach 150,000 deaths by the end of the year.

SOURCE: John Hopkins University