US health official Anthony Fauci said on Tuesday that the current state of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States “is really not good” and a “serious situation that we have to address immediately.”
The United States is still “knee-deep” in the first wave of the illnesses, having never gotten the case number as low as planned, Dr Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said during a live internet interview with National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins.
“It’s a serious situation that we have to address immediately,” Dr Fauci said.
Dr Fauci said that he expects an eventual vaccine, now in development by several companies, to work well and provide protection at least for some period of time, but that it will not be infinite protection such as the vaccine for measles.
Infections on the rise in 39 states
COVID-19 infections are on the rise in 39 states, according to a Reuters analysis of cases over the past two weeks, with the country as a whole averaging some 50,000 new cases nearly every 24 hours in recent days.
More states are also reporting a troubling increase in the percentage of COVID-19 diagnostic tests that come back positive - a key indicator of community spread that experts refer to as the rate of "positivity."
Several states were averaging double-digit rates and climbing, including Arizona at 26 per cent, Florida at 19 per cent and Mississippi at 17 per cent.
A Florida health care worker administers COVID-19 tests Source: AAP
California's positivity rate has also risen over the past two weeks. But Governor Gavin Newsom cited a 50 per cent two-week spike in hospitalisations as an impetus for beefed-up enforcement actions during the Fourth of July holiday.
He said state regulators visited nearly 6000 bars and restaurants over the weekend to ensure compliance with rules barring indoor seating, or the reopening of any establishment that normally serves alcohol without food.
130,000 deaths
The nationwide loss of life from COVID-19 surpassed 130,000 on Tuesday, and the US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention forecast that the death toll could reach 160,000 later this month.
The disquieting surge in new cases has prompted many local leaders to slow down or roll back business reopenings in hopes of curbing infection rates that have started to overwhelm hospitals in some areas.
Colleges and universities have likewise been forced to adjust their reopening plans.
As the cumulative US case total nears 3 million - about a quarter of all known infections worldwide - scrutiny of President Donald Trump's handling of the crisis has intensified.
Mr Trump, who has suggested scaling back COVID-19 testing to keep the number of reported cases in check, said in a speech on Saturday that 99 per cent of US coronavirus infections were "totally harmless," but offered no evidence to support his assertion.
Mark Meadows, the White House chief of staff, defended Mr Trump's comments on Tuesday.
“I don’t even know that it’s a generalisation,” he said.
“When you start to look at the stats and look at all the numbers we have, the amount of testing that we have, the vast majority of people are safe from this.
“When you look at the deaths that we have, if you’re over 80 years of age or if you have three what they call comorbidities – diabetes, hypertension, heart issues – then you need to be very, very careful. Outside of that, the risks are extremely low, and the president’s right with that and the facts and statistics back us up there,” Mr Meadows told Fox News.
