Health

Fauci: I don’t foresee new US lockdowns despite rising Covid cases

Washington, Aug 1 (EFE).- The top US government epidemiologist, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said Sunday that he does not believe that the US will see renewed coronavirus lockdowns, despite the rapidly increasing number of cases being caused by the highly contagious Delta variant.

“I don’t think we’re going to see lockdowns. I think we have enough of the percentage of people in the country, not enough to crush the outbreak, but I believe enough to allow us to not get into the situation we were in last winter,” Fauci told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday morning.

He added, though, that “we are seeing an outbreak of the unvaccinated,” going on to emphasize the efficacy of vaccines against COVID-19 illness.

Nevertheless, “things are going to get worse,” said the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, citing the number of newly confirmed Covid-19 cases over the past seven days, adding “We have 100 million people in this country who are eligible to be vaccinated who are not getting vaccinated.”

On Saturday, Florida – the third-largest US state in terms of population, registered 21,638 new Covid-19 cases, the highest figure since the start of the pandemic in March 2020, according to the state health department and the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

The previous daily record for new Covid cases in Florida had been 19,334 on Jan. 7, 2021.

The average number of newly confirmed daily cases over the past seven days stands at 15,818 in Florida, which is currently the epicenter of the pandemic in the US.

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a Republican with presidential aspirations and well known for his opposition to CDC policies and to Fauci himself, whom he accuses of wanting to impose a “dystopia” on US citizens, has taken no measures to attempt to halt the renewed outbreak of the pandemic in the Sunshine State.

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