A quarter of a million people have died from coronavirus in the U.S.

The United States passed a grim milestone Wednesday, hitting 250,000 coronavirus-related deaths, with the number expected to keep climbing steeply as infections surge nationwide.

Experts predict that the country could soon be reporting 2,000 deaths a day or more, matching or exceeding the spring peak, and that 100,000 to 200,000 more Americans could die in the coming months.

Just how bad it gets will depend on a variety of factors, including how well preventive measures are followed and when a vaccine is introduced.

"It all depends on what we do and how we address this outbreak," said Jeffrey Shaman, a Columbia University professor of environmental health sciences who has modeled the spread of the disease. "That is going to determine how much it runs through us."

Back in March, when the virus was still relatively new and limited mainly to a few significant pockets like New York, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert in the country, predicted that it might kill up to 240,000 Americans.

It has now passed that mark, with no end in sight.

Since the very beginning, preventive measures like wearing masks have been caught up in a political divide, and that remains the case today, as the Trump administration resists beginning a transition of power to President-elect Joe Biden and cooperating on a pandemic strategy.

New vaccines may begin to have an effect next year, experts said, and for now, developments in treating the disease as well as a younger population getting infected mean that far fewer people who are admitted to hospitals are dying. Infections are also being diagnosed earlier, which helps combat it.

The deadliest day of the pandemic in the United States was April 15, when the reported daily toll hit 2,752.

There is always a lag in deaths, compared with the rate of infection and hospitalizations, and with the latter measure now hitting records every day — 76,830 Americans were hospitalized Tuesday, according to the COVID Tracking Project — the death toll is certain to go on rising.

At the same time, Americans seeking coronavirus tests are experiencing lengthier lines and waiting days to get test results — delays that complicate efforts to slow the pandemic and that are expected to intensify as people try to get tested before family gatherings.

Testing sites from New York to Wisconsin to Oregon are reporting lines stretching three to four hours, with results taking as long as five days.

In Denver, officials at one testing site shut down within an hour of opening Tuesday because it had reached capacity. At another site, lines grew so long that officials closed over concerns about traffic safety. In New York, residents are standing in line for hours. In Olympia, Wash., officials have had to turn away as many as 200 cars in line in recent days because labs had reached capacity.

When Sarah Hass, 22, recently tried to book a coronavirus test in the Chicago suburbs, she couldn't find a clinic with an open appointment in the next three days. She widened her search to any CVS or Walgreens within a two-hour drive. Still nothing.

Finally, she headed to a drive-through testing site set up by state authorities in a vacant parking lot in the southwest suburb of Aurora, Ill.

For three hours, she inched along in the torturous caravan.

"I listened to an audio book, put on music, tweeted pictures of the line," said Hass, who works part-time at a restaurant. The testing site was scheduled to close at 4 p.m., but workers stayed hours longer to help those in line. "The time it takes right now is just crazy."

The Washington Post contributed to this report.