The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Dr. Anthony Fauci, testifies before the House Energy and Commerce Committee about the Trump Administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, on Capitol Hill, Washington, DC, on June 23, 2020.
Kevin Dietsch | Pool via Reuters
White House health adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said Tuesday that there are early signs that a coronavirus outbreak may be brewing in Indiana, Ohio, Tennessee and Kentucky.
The so-called positivity rate, or the percentage of tests done that appear positive, appears to be increasing in those states, an early indication that the outbreak is getting worse, Fauci said. While President Donald Trump and others have attributed the increase in cases in the US to increased evidence, an increasing rate of positivity cannot be attributed to increased evidence.
“That’s a sure sign that you have to be very careful,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said in an interview with ABC’s “Good Morning America”.
The coronavirus outbreaks that have ravaged the south recently have shown signs of a slowdown after states delayed or reversed reopening plans, according to CNBC analysis of data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. Meanwhile, Covid-19 cases were growing more than 10% in Indiana, Kentucky, and Tennessee as of Monday compared to a week ago, based on an average of seven days.
Kentucky and Ohio also reported a record number of Covid-19 hospitalizations on Monday, based on an average of seven days, according to a CNBC analysis of data compiled by the Covid Monitoring Project.
“This current group of states, Indiana, Ohio, Kentucky, Tennessee, and Virginia tomorrow, are the next group of states where we have significant concerns about increasing the rate of test positivity and the increasing number of cases,” said Dr Deborah, White House health adviser. Birx told reporters at a press conference in Kentucky on Sunday after meeting with Governor Andy Beshear.
Birx warned that the coronavirus is beginning to take hold in more rural areas, a sign that people are bringing the virus to their communities after visiting other cities. She said there are states that should consider closing their bars and reducing indoor gatherings to 10 people or less.
“We can see what is happening in the south moving north,” said Birx.
However, President Donald Trump suggested on Monday that more states should consider reopening their businesses as the outbreaks in parts of the country show signs of slowing down.
“I really believe that many of the governors should be opening states that are not opening,” Trump said during a coronavirus briefing at the Bioprocess Innovation Center at Fujifilm Diosynth Biotechnologies in Morrisville, North Carolina. “We will see what happens to them.”
Fauci told ABC on Tuesday that states must follow the national guidelines that the White House coronavirus task force established earlier this year for its reopening. The guidelines suggest reopening in two-week phases as long as cases and hospitalizations continue to decline, among other things.
“That is really the national strategy. This was the recommendation that was made,” he said.
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