COVID update: Fauci warns that progress in fight against coronavirus appears to be

WASHINGTON – On Friday, U.S. health officials on the COVID response team in the White House warned that recent progress with declining numbers appears to have stopped and that restrictions should not be eased until the U.S. baseline is much lower.

The numbers have fallen sharply since early January, but the average of seven days still hangs around 70,000.

It is the opponent of last year’s summer peak and threatens to push the US in the wrong direction.

“Certainly, 70,000 are not there. Not even close,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s leading expert in infectious diseases, said. “At the same time, you should scale down the test of the vaccine in the positive test.”

Fauci said he wants to see where the numbers go next week or so before advising people to weaken restrictions.

Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, agrees.

“The latest data suggests that these declines could decrease, which could possibly decrease and (still) be a very high number,” she said. “We at CDC see this as a very worrying shift in the trajectory.”

“We may be done with the virus, but the virus is not done with us. We can not feel comfortable or give a false sense of security that the worst of the pandemic is behind us,” she said.

Fauci says the next week or so will be critical.

“We do not want to be people who always look at the dark side of things, but you want to be realistic,” he said. “So, we need to look closely at what happens to the numbers next week, before you start making the understandable need to relax about certain constraints. So, just keep a close eye on it and be prepared to respond to what’s really happening.”