For about three hours, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other health experts testified before a Senate committee on President Trump’s coronavirus response and the country’s progress in reopening. New York added California and seven other states to its quarantine list.
Fauci said he is “very concerned” with the increase in the number of cases in some parts of the country. He warns that the U.S. could see 100,000 new cases a day, and officials aim to counter vaccine sceptics.
Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, acknowledged that the country is seeing “significant increases” in the southeast and southwest regions.
Fauci and Redfield urged the public to wear face masks as states continue to struggle to contain the virus. Redfield singled out younger Americans, in particular, to deliver a message that they are not exempt from the necessity of wearing a mask.
Fauci said pool testing for coronavirus could be a helpful tool as schools look to reopen in the fall.
Redfield told Senate lawmakers that the agency had spent around three months developing a plan to rebuild “vaccine confidence.” It is an attempt to win over a large slice of Americans still hesitant about inoculation.
Fauci mentioned there’s “no guarantee” the US will develop a “safe and effective” Covid-19 vaccine — but experts are “aspirationally hopeful” there could be doses available to the public by next year.
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases globally is nearly 10.4 million, and the death toll is more than 507,000. There are more than 2.6 million cases in the U.S. and over 126,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University data dashboard.
