A new coronavirus burst could be around the corner, US public health officials say, and now is not the time to relax COVID-19 restrictions.
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country’s top infectious disease expert, said on Sunday that while the number of new infections daily is significantly lower than in January, they have reached a plateau at what is still a very high number.
“Historically, if you look back at the different peaks we’ve had, when they come down and then start to plateau at a very high level, then a plateau at a level of 60 to 70,000 new cases per day is not an issue. acceptable level. That’s really, really high, ”Fauci said in an interview on CBS’s“ Face the Nation. “
“And if you look at what happened in Europe a few weeks ago, they are usually a few weeks ahead of us in these patterns, they also came down, then they came flat. And in the past week, the number of cases has increased by about 9%. “
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A number of states have recently relaxed restrictions as contamination rates have fallen from the peaks of the winter’s COVID-19 peak. California plans to reopen schools, outdoor stadiums, live outdoor performances and Disneyland in April, while Texas and Mississippi are lifting face mask mandates despite pleas from health officials.
Fauci warned that mitigation measures need to be relaxed slowly and carefully – “But don’t turn that switch on and off because it would be really risky to have another wave again, which we don’t want as we are leveling off on a plateau. quite a high level. “
His concerns were echoed by infectious disease specialist Dr. Celine Gounder, who warned that new, more contagious variants of COVID-19 are spreading rapidly, especially the B.1.1.7 variant, which was first discovered in the UK.
“That tension is increasing exponentially. It’s rising, ”Gounder told CNN. “So we are probably now at the tipping point of a new wave.”
Michael Osterholm, director of the University of Minnesota’s Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the current vaccination coverage just isn’t fast enough to stop the spread of the new variants.
“We are now in the eye of the hurricane,” said Osterholm. “It is going very well, we are seeing blue skies.” But the British variant “is about to come,” he said. “Today it is wreaking havoc in parts of Europe.”
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Osterholm said the UK variant has grown from 1% to 4% of all cases in the US about a month ago to about 30% to 40% now. “What we’ve seen in Europe, if we hit that 50% mark, you see cases increasing.”
To face the threat, Osterholm said the US should not give up on coronavirus restrictions and work to vaccinate the population even faster.
Fauci said the US is on the right track. “Every day that goes by that we keep an eye on things is getting better, as we now put at least 2 million vaccinations every day in the arms of individuals. … So we’re going in the right direction. We just have to hang around there a bit longer. “
According to data from Johns Hopkins University, the US has recorded 28.9 million cases of COVID-19 and nearly 525,000 deaths as of late Sunday. Both are by far the most of any country in the world.