Fauci says he doesn’t expect any new lockdowns in the US despite increasing cases

WASHINGTON – President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, Dr Anthony Fauci, said on Sunday he did not expect the United States to resume containment, despite growing risks of COVID-19 infections posed by the delta variant.

“I don’t think we’re going to see any blockages,” said Fauci, who is also director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, on ABC’s “This Week”.

“I think we have enough of the percentage of people in the country – not enough to crush the epidemic – but I believe enough not to allow us to get into the situation we were in last winter.”

The surge in cases of delta variants is shaking the world. Parts of Asia that previously did relatively well in containing COVID-19, such as the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, are now blocking hot spots.

Some are pushing back the new restrictions. From Monday, military personnel will assist police in Sydney, Australia’s largest city, by verifying that people who test positive are self-isolating.

In France, where the government is fighting a fourth wave of infections, thousands of people demonstrated for a third consecutive weekend against the introduction of a compulsory health passport proving the vaccination which will be compulsory to access many places public.

While Fauci doesn’t think the United States will need to shut down again like it did last year, he warned on ABC that “things will get worse” as the Delta variant continues to spread.

“We have 100 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated and who are not getting vaccinated,” he said.

The average number of new cases reported each day has nearly doubled in the past 10 days and the number of hospital patients in many states is increasing, according to a Reuters analysis.

At the same time, the number of Americans getting vaccinated has increased.

“The silver lining is that people are waking up to this and it can be a tipping point for those who have hesitated,” National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins told CNN on Sunday. “This is what desperately needs to happen if we are to put this Delta variant back in its place, because right now it’s having a pretty big party in the middle of the country.”

Florida has one of the worst epidemics in the country, based on new cases per capita. It reported more than 110,000 new cases in the past week, a 50% increase from the previous week.

The delta variant, first detected in India, is as contagious as chickenpox and far more contagious than the common cold or the flu, the US Centers for Disease Control said in an internal document. It can be transmitted by people who have been vaccinated and can cause more serious illness than previous strains.

Contributing: David Lawder

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