WASHINGTON: The US government's top infectious disease expert, Dr Anthony Fauci, on Monday (Aug 3) said states with high coronavirus case counts should reconsider imposing lockdown restrictions, emphasising the need to get cases to a low baseline before the fall flu season.
In some states with moderate case counts, experts are seeing "that same insidious increase in percent positive that we had seen and pointed out ... in states like Tennessee, Kentucky, Ohio, Minnesota and others", Fauci said during an interview with the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA).
Fauci said last week that he was seeing signs the surge of COVID-19 cases could be peaking in the South and West while other areas were on the cusp of new outbreaks. Those states should consider pausing or rolling back reopening efforts, though they don't necessarily need to revert to full lockdown, he said.
Arkansas, California, Florida, Montana, Oregon and Texas each reported record spikes in fatalities last week.
Fauci said that it is crucial that the outbreak be contained before autumn, when influenza cases are likely to spike alongside COVID-19 and more people begin to move indoors, increasing the risk of contagion.
Fauci also cautioned that although data suggests that young children do not get seriously ill from COVID-19, they are still capable of getting infected and spreading the virus.