Home ›› 01 Jul 2020 ›› World Biz
Top disease researcher Dr Anthony Fauci has told the US Senate that he "would not be surprised" if new virus cases in the country reach 100,000 per day.
"Clearly we are not in control right now," he testified, warning that not enough Americans are wearing masks or social distancing.
During the hearing, he said about half of all new cases come from only four states.
Earlier, the New York governor said nearly half of all Americans must self-quarantine if they visit the state.
On Tuesday, cases rose by more than 40,000 in one day for the fourth time in the past five days.
The surge - which is occurring particularly strongly in southern and western states - has forced at least 16 states to pause or reverse their reopening plans, according to CNN. Florida, Arizona, Texas and California are the four states referenced by Dr Fauci as being most heavily hit currently.
For some, the new measures come over a month after they first began to reopen their economies.
Also on Tuesday, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo expanded the number of Americans who are required to self-quarantine for 14 days if they visit the state. There are now 16 states on the list.
The newly added states are California, Georgia, Iowa, Idaho, Louisiana, Mississippi, Nevada and Tennessee.
They join Alabama, Arkansas, Arizona, Florida, North Carolina, South Carolina, Texas and Utah.
Altogether, the order affects 48% of all US residents, according to a USA Today analysis.
On Monday, Dr Anne Schuchat, principal deputy director of the CDC, warned that the US is not responding like other countries who have shown success in containing the coronavirus, and has allowed the virus to spread much more widely and rapidly.
The US has recorded 2,682,897 confirmed cases of coronavirus as of Tuesday, according to Johns Hopkins University, and has a total of 129,544 deaths.
"This is really the beginning," Dr Schuchat added.
"I think there was a lot of wishful thinking around the country that, 'hey it's summer'. Everything's going to be fine. We're over this and we are not even beginning to be over this. There are a lot of worrisome factors about the last week or so."
Meanwhile, Dr Fauci warned on Monday that the US is "unlikely" to develop herd immunity to the coronavirus even once a vaccine is available, which he earlier predicted could happen by early 2021.
He said this was due to the combination of a vaccine that is potentially only partially effective, and the large number of Americans who might refuse to get it.
"There is a general anti-science, anti-authority, anti-vaccine feeling among some people in this country - an alarmingly large percentage of people, relatively speaking," he said, calling for more education to promote confidence in vaccines.
Dr Fauci added that he would gladly "settle" for a vaccine that is only 70% to 75% effective at first.
According to the CDC website, herd immunity is reached when "a sufficient proportion of a population is immune to an infectious disease (through vaccination and/or prior illness) to make its spread from person to person unlikely".
(Source: BBC)
