Over 134 thousand US residents may die due to the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reported referring to the model, from the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation at the University of Washington.

This indicator is almost double the previous forecast of experts. Scientists attribute the increasing number of deaths from COVID-19 to the increased mobility of the country's inhabitants as some US states have weakened quarantine measures to save the economy.

Ali Mokdad, a professor of Health Metrics Sciences at IHME, told CNN's John King that there are "several reasons" for the increased projections.

"One of them is increased mobility before the relaxation, premature relaxation, of social distancing," he said. "We're adding more presumptive deaths as well, and we're seeing a lot of outbreaks in the Midwest, for example."

According to him, multiple variables impact infections - like heat, testing capacity, and population density - but "the most important one is mobility."

The COVID-19 death toll has exceeded 250 thousand, with over 68 thousand deaths in the US.