WASHINGTON - A total of 530,000 to 559,000 COVID-19 deaths will be reported in the United States by March 13, according to the latest projections of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The new forecast predicts that 8,400 to 18,500 new deaths will likely be reported in the week ending March 13.

The CDC predicts that the number of newly reported COVID-19 deaths will likely decrease over the next four weeks.

COVID-19 cases, hospitalizations and deaths continue to trend downward in the United States. But the CDC warns that coronavirus variants may lead to a "rapid rise" in COVID-19 infections.

The United States has recorded over 27.83 million cases with more than 491,000 related deaths as of Thursday noon, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.