- Health experts on Sunday warned of another outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States.
- Dr. Celine Gounder said the variant found for the first time in the UK was increasing. “We are at the critical point of another wave.”
- Dr. Anthony Fauci said that although the cases were falling, they were stabilizing at a “very high” level.
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US public health officials warned on Sunday of another increase in COVID-19 cases if states relaxed restrictions too soon.
Mississippi, Iowa, Montana, North Dakota and, more recently, Texas have suspended mandatory mask use in public, although health officials advise against it.
Dr. Celine Gounder, an infectious disease specialist and U.S. epidemiologist, said in an interview with CNN on Sunday that the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK, which is more infectious, is spreading rapidly across America.
“This tension is increasing exponentially. It is increasing,” she said. “So we are probably at the critical point of another wave now.”
More than 3,000 cases of the variant have been reported in the United States, data from Sunday’s CDC showed.
The number of new daily cases of COVID-19 has dropped to less than 70,000, data from Johns Hopkins University showed. This is less than the more than 240,000 new daily cases earlier this year. But Dr. Anthony Fauci, the United States’ leading infectious disease specialist, told CBS’s “Face the Nation” program on Sunday that the numbers were still “really very high.”
“Stagnating at a level of 60,000 to 70,000 new cases per day is not an acceptable level. This is really very high,” said Fauci.
“We want to go back carefully and slowly about withdrawing mitigation methods. But don’t turn this switch on and off because it would be really risky to have another wave,” he said.
Fauci added that the coronavirus strain first found in New York is not yet spread, but is spreading beyond the New York metropolitan area. Health officials are also monitoring four other variants in the United States, found for the first time in the United Kingdom, South Africa, Brazil and California.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” program on Sunday that the United States is in the “eye of the storm.”
He said the coronavirus variant first identified in the UK “is about to hit us”, adding that “it is causing havoc in parts of Europe”.
Their comments came five days after Texas Governor Greg Abbott said he would suspend the mask’s mandate and allow companies to open 100% in the state, contrary to advice from federal health officials.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, head of the CDC, said on Tuesday that the United States could see a fourth increase in cases of COVID-19 if people do not follow public health recommendations. “Now is not the time to relax the critical safeguards that we know can prevent the spread of COVID-19 in our communities,” she said.
The coronavirus has infected more than 28.9 million Americans and killed more than 525,000, data from Johns Hopkins University showed.