200,000 may die from coronavirus in US: Health official

The U.S. could see up to 200,000 deaths from coronavirus and millions of infected cases, the U.S. government's top infectious diseases official said Sunday.

"Looking at what we're seeing now, we're looking at 100,000 to 200,000 deaths,'' said Dr Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on CNN.

"We're going to have millions of cases," Anadolu Agency quoted Dr Fauci as saying.

Fauci, a member of the White House coronavirus task force, added that the predictions could change as the disease's outbreak is "such a moving target."

As of Sunday afternoon, at least 2,197 people have died and the number of infections rose to 125,300, with 2,612 recoveries, according to Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.

The first U.S. death occurred Feb. 29 in Washington state. A total of 136 people have died there. -BERNAMA