COVID update: Fauci warns that progress in the fight against the coronavirus appears to have stalled

WASHINGTON – At the White House COVID response team briefing on Friday, US health officials warned that recent progress in declining cases appears to have stalled and restrictions should not be relaxed until the US baseline is much lower .

The numbers have fallen dramatically since the beginning of January, but the seven-day average is still hovering around 70,000.

That rivals last year’s summer peak and threatens to push the US in the wrong direction.

“Certainly there are not 70,000. Not even close,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top infectious disease expert. “You have to lower the positivity of the test while you scale up the vaccine.”

Fauci said he wants to see where the numbers are heading for the next week before advising people to ease restrictions.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, agreed.

“The latest data suggests that these declines may be stalling, possibly leveling off, and (at) still a very high number,” she said. “We at CDC see this as a very worrying shift in the trajectory.”

“We may be done with the virus, but the virus is not done with us yet. We cannot feel comfortable or give a false sense of security that the worst of the pandemic is over,” she said.

Fauci says the next week or so will be critical.

“We don’t want to be people who always look at the dark side of things, but you want to be realistic,” he said. “So we have to look carefully at what happens to those numbers over the next week or so before you start making the understandable need to relax with certain disabilities. So keep a close eye and be prepared to respond based on what is really happening. ”