- Health experts warned on Sunday about another COVID-19 surge in the US.
- Dr Celine Gounder said the variant first found in the UK was ingenious. “We’re on the verge of another boom.”
- Dr Anthony Fauci said that although the cases were falling, they seemed at a ‘very high’ level.
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Top U.S. public health officials on Sunday warned of a new upsurge in COVID-19 cases if the states relaxed restrictions too soon.
Mississippi, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota, and more recently Texas, have lifted the mandatory mask in public, despite health officials recommending it.
Dr Celine Gounder, an American specialist and epidemiologist in infectious diseases, said in a CNN interview on Sunday that the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK, which is more contagious, is spreading rapidly across America.
“The tension is increasing exponentially. It is increasing,” she said. “So we are probably now at a tipping point of another upswing.”
More than 3,000 cases of the variant have been reported in the US, CDC data from Sunday showed.
Johns Hopkins University data showed that the number of new daily cases of COVID-19 dropped to less than 70,000. That is down from more than 240,000 new daily affairs earlier this year. But dr. Anthony Fauci, the top US expert on infectious diseases, told CBS ‘Face the Nation’ on Sunday that the numbers were still “really very high”.
“The plateau at a level of 60,000 to 70,000 new cases per day is not an acceptable level. It is really very high,” Fauci said.
“We want to come back carefully and slowly to pull back the mitigation methods. But do not turn the switch on and off, because it would be really dangerous to have a new boom again,” he said.
Fauci added that the coronavirus strain first found in New York is not yet widespread, but that it is spreading beyond the metropolitan area of New York. Health officials are also monitoring four other variants in the US, which were first found in the UK, South Africa, Brazil and California.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Research and Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the US is in the “eye of the hurricane”.
He said the coronavirus variant, first identified in the UK, would soon come upon us, adding that “it is wreaking havoc in parts of Europe.”
Their comments come five days after the Texas government, Greg Abbott, said he would lift a mask mandate and that businesses could open 100% in the state, contrary to the advice of federal health officials.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the head of the CDC, said on Tuesday that the US could have a fourth surge of COVID-19 cases if people do not follow the recommendations on public health. “This is not the time to stop the critical precautions we know the spread of COVID-19 in our communities,” she said.
The coronavirus infected more than 28.9 million Americans and killed more than 525,000 people, Johns Hopkins University data showed.