Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, is preparing to testify at a House Select Subcommittee on the Coronavirus Crisis hearing in Washington, DC, July 31, 2020.
Kevin Dietsch | Swimming pool | Reuters
White House coronavirus adviser Dr Anthony Fauci said he was not happy with the current state of the Covid-19 pandemic in the United States.
U.S. public health officials are beginning to see a “disruptive” uptick in the rate of tests for coronavirus that return positive in some regions of the nation, Fauci said during a National Geographic panel moderated by ABC News Correspondent Deborah Roberts, which aired on Thursday. “Bottom line is, I’m not happy with how things are going.”
“We are certainly not where I hope we would be, we are in the midst of a very serious historic pandemic,” he added.
The U.S. has the worst outbreak in the world with more than 5 million infections and at least 166,000 deaths as of Thursday, according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University. On Wednesday, the U.S. registered more than 1,500 deaths caused by Covid-19, marking the deadliest day for the country since the end of May.
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, has previously warned of a potential increase in Covid-19 cases brewing in states such as Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana, which have reported an uptick in the so-called positivity figures, as the percentage tests that are positive.
While some states are starting to see an uptick, outbreaks are improving in California, Florida, Texas and Arizona and “they now have, fewer deaths, fewer hospitalizations, fewer cases,” Fauci said.
He, the US, will continue to see cases rise and fall unless the federal government and states come together. “That’s the thing I’m concerned about, because I believe we can, we’re in our power to get that down,” he said.
Fauci’s comments are in line with President Donald Trump’s statement earlier this week in a White House press release that the outbreak in the US will be “in good shape” in “a very short period of time. ” Trump said U.S. health officials continue to show “encouraging signs,” and tout a recent decline in cases and hospital admissions in Florida and Texas.
“I want to say that at the end of a very short period of time we will be in good shape in this country,” he told reporters.
The World Health Organization says there is still no “silver bullet” for the coronavirus and that “maybe never would be.”
The agency asks countries to practice the “basics” including testing, isolating and treating patients and locating and quarantining their contacts. “The message to people and governments is clear: Do it all,” WHO Director-General Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said on 3 August.
Fauci has previously said that the coronavirus is so contagious that it will probably never completely disappear. While the virus will not go away, Fauci has previously said it is possible that world leaders and public health officials could work to bring the pandemic to “low levels”.
He said the U.S. has had so many cases because some states did not close early in the outbreak, while others opened too soon. He said other countries were able to eliminate their first wave of outbreaks after shutting down at least 90% of their non-essential businesses.
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