U.S. fatalities from COVID-19 may be as low as 60,000 -- far fewer than earlier projections -- owing to safety measures such as social distancing, the nation’s top infectious disease expert said Thursday.

“The real data are telling us it is highly likely we are having a definite positive effect by the mitigation things that we’re doing, this physical separation,” Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC in an interview.

“I believe we are going to see a downturn in that, and it looks more like the 60,000, than the 100,000 to 200,000” projected fatalities, he said.