Lockdown delays led to at least 36,000 more deaths, models find

All 50 states have begun to reopen to some degree, but rules vary. Scientists say they see progress on the path to developing a vaccine by next year. If the United States had begun imposing social-distancing measures one week earlier in March, about 36,000 fewer people would have died in the pandemic, according to new estimates from Columbia University disease modelers.

And if the country had begun locking down cities and limiting social contact on March 1, two weeks earlier than when most people started staying home, a vast majority of the nation’s deaths — about 83 percent — would have been avoided, the researchers estimated.