‘Real normality’ still a year away in US as coronavirus pandemic rages on, Fauci says
Can’t wait until you can quit worrying about coronavirus? You may not want to hold your breath.
“I would hope to get to some degree of real normality within a year or so,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, The Telegraph reports. “But I don’t think it’s this winter or fall, we’ll be seeing it for a bit more.”
Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, says the virus “could go on for a couple of cycles, coming back and forth” in the U.S., according to the publication.
Twenty-one states have seen increases in average daily new cases as lockdowns and stay-home orders are gradually lifted, The Washington Post reported.
Alabama, Oregon and South Carolina are among the states with the biggest increases, according to the publication.
“We were successful in suppressing the virus in cities where there were major outbreaks — New York, Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans,” Fauci said, The Telegraph reported. “But we’re seeing several states, as they try to reopen and get back to normal, starting to see early indications (that) infections are higher than previously.”
The United States hasn’t even reached the second wave of coronavirus infections, NPR reported.
“We really never quite finished the first wave,” said Dr. Ashish Jha, a professor of global health at Harvard University, according to the network. “And it doesn’t look like we are going to anytime soon.”
On Monday, the World Health Organization also sounded the alarm about a potential coronavirus resurgence , McClatchy News previously reported.
“More than six months into this pandemic, this is not the time for any country to take its foot off the pedal,” said Dr. Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus, director-general of WHO.
He described the global coronavirus outlook as “worsening” as new cases rose.
But Fauci told The Telegraph he sees a “light at the end of the tunnel.”
“This will end,” Fauci said, according to the publication. “As stressful and devastating as it is, it will end.”
More than 7.8 million cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 430,000 deaths as of Sunday, June 14, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 2 million confirmed cases with more than 115,000 deaths.
WHO has declared coronavirus a global pandemic. In the United States, President Donald Trump has declared a national emergency.
This story was originally published June 14, 2020 at 12:58 PM with the headline "‘Real normality’ still a year away in US as coronavirus pandemic rages on, Fauci says."