Dr. Anthony Fauci said coronavirus cases could grow to 100,000 a day in the United States if Americans don’t start following public health recommendations.
The United States is “going in the wrong direction” with the coronavirus surging badly enough that Dr. Anthony Fauci told senators Tuesday some regions are putting the entire country at risk — just as schools and colleges are wrestling with how to safely reopen.
With about 40,000 new cases being reported a day, Fauci, the federal government’s top infectious disease expert, said he “would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around.”
“I am very concerned,” he told a hearing of the Senate health, education, labour and pensions committee.
Infections are rising rapidly, mostly in parts of the West and South, and Fauci and other public health experts said Americans everywhere will have to start following key recommendations if they want to get back to more normal activities like going to school.
“We’ve got to get the message out that we are all in this together,” by wearing masks in public and keeping out of crowds, said Fauci, infectious disease chief at the National Institutes of Health (NIH).
Connect the dots, he told senators: When and how school buildings can reopen will vary depending on how widely the coronavirus is spreading locally.
“I feel very strongly we need to do whatever we can to get the children back to school,” he said.
WATCH | Fauci warns U.S. could hit 100,000 daily coronavirus infections:
The United States’ top infectious d