A medical professor has predicted the US will see 96 million cases of COVID-19 and 480,000 deaths in the US alone.

The horrifying forecast was contained in slides James Lawler of the University of Nebraska Medical Center presented during a webinar hosted by the American Hospital Association on February 26, reports Business Insider.

Of the 96 million predicted infections, Dr Lawler estimates around 4.8 million of them will result in hospitalisation, putting 10 times as much pressure on the notorious US health system as a usual flu season.

A spokesperson for the University of Nebraska Medical Center said those figures were "his interpretation of the data available" at that point in late February, and it's "possible that forecast will change as more information becomes available".

The slides called it a "best guess", at a time when the US had only a few dozen confirmed cases and zero deaths. Two weeks on, the US now has 21 deaths and more than 500 confirmed cases.