WASHINGTON, DC – While it appears that North Carolina has reached a crucial benchmark this week by returning to the normalcy of COVID-19, Dr. Anthony Fauci expresses concern about states that have withdrawn from regulating limits to social life.
In an interview with Meet the Press presenter Chuck Todd, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, advised caution on what he thinks is the early lifting of the restrictions in some states.
North Carolina, South Carolina and Virginia relaxed all major restrictions on Friday, as did Massachusetts, Arkansas and Wyoming. Several other states have relaxed some level of restrictions. The relaxation of the rules came days after the nation passed the 500,000 death rate after COVID-19.
“We had a picture of about a dozen states, some, like North Carolina, that allowed more fans to get into the stands, there were more indoor bars open and things like that,” Todd began asking. And you and Dr. [Rochelle] Walensky was like “not yet.” Why not yet? Why is this week not yet the week to relax restrictions? “
“It is really too premature now to back down too much,” said Fauci, who has come to the public’s attention since the start of the pandemic. ‘I’m afraid we are still at that level of 70,000 [infections per day] and when people start to pull back on mitigation methods and mitigation activities, you run the risk, and it’s a real risk, of seeing it go back up and that’s not something I imagine. Go back and look at the peaks we’ve had in the last year, it was always at a time when you wanted to retreat. “
“Because we’ve been in this situation before,” Fauci replied. “If you start to see a decrease in the number of cases, if you remove the restrictions early, we have a few examples of the rebound back.”
“Our baseline of daily infections now, even though it’s a long way from where it was, over 300,000 a day, has dropped to about 70,000. That baseline is too high.”
A new executive order that went into effect on Friday ended a statewide curfew and allows bars to fill up to 30% of their indoor capacity. Indoor meetings were for 10 to 25 people. The average number of new cases in North Carolina is on the decline, with 2,636 new cases last reported, the lowest since mid-November. The NC COVID-19 dashboard was not updated with new statistics on Sunday.
“Once you start to pull back, you don’t want to plateau at a level so high that things will inevitably go back up,” Fauci said. “That’s why. We understand the need and desire, understandably, to want to back off because things are going in the right direction. You need to get that baseline lower than now, especially in light of the fact that we have a “Have some worrying variants that are occurring in places like California and New York and others that we’re watching. It’s really too premature now.”
Earlier this week, high school football kicked off in the state, and fans were allowed in some locations. The UNC men’s basketball team played in front of about 3,000 fans in an upset win against Florida State at the Smith Center on Saturday.
The Carolina Hurricanes expect to welcome fans, as many as approximately 2,800, to PNC Arena for upcoming games. Governor Cooper’s latest executive order, taking effect Friday, would allow the hurricanes and others to fill up to 15% of their arena’s capacity.
To the extent that doesn’t change, statewide mask requirements and 6-foot separation guidelines remain in effect, and restaurants and breweries must adhere to a 50% capacity rule.
“Relaxing these restrictions will only work if we continue to protect ourselves and others from this deadly pandemic,” Cooper noted as he announced the order.[This] action is a vote of confidence and confidence, but we must remain cautious. “
“North Carolina’s health protocols are stronger than many other states and the governor relied on science and data to gently relax restrictions to advance our economy while still protecting public health,” said government press officer Dory MacMillan. at the WRAL on Sunday.