More than 60% of Americans say they always wear a mask in public, according to data compiled by the University of Washington's Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). But more people will need to put one on if the US has any hope of mitigating its third major surge of infections.

The country's daily coronavirus cases have risen more than 40% on average since the start of October, an ominous swing in the wrong direction as cold weather sets in.

A new model from IHME predicted the US's total death count could surpass 511,000 by the end of February -- more than double the number of COVID-19 deaths the nation has seen so far.

But if 95% of the country wore masks, nearly 130,000 of those lives might be saved, the researchers found.