- Click to share on Facebook (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on Twitter (Opens in a new window)
- Click to share on LinkedIn (Opens in a new window)
- Click to email a friend (Opens in a new window)
Why the USA became the country with the most cases of covid-19? 0:48
(CNN) - Americans have the potential to take summer vacations this year, as long as the country continues aggressive mitigation efforts now and comes to a time where it can modify them, the nation's top infectious disease official said Thursday.
Dr. Anthony Fauci's comment comes amid a tension between wishes to gradually open up the economy and maintain social distancing measures that experts say will keep deaths low only if those policies continue.
On Thursday on "CBS This Morning," Fauci was asked if she imagined a typical summer with vacations, baseball games, weddings, and family reunions.
- Fauci: United States "has difficulty" controlling the coronavirus and saying otherwise would be wrong
"It may be in the deck," Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CBS.
But he warned: "When we walk away and try to open up the country ... we have to be prepared so that when infections start to return," the country has a way to identify them aggressively and effectively and "isolate, contract tracing and make sure we don't have the peaks we have now. "
In addition, he said that progress towards normality will be gradual and could be different depending on the region.
"Fortunately, by the time we get to summer, we will have taken many steps in that direction" that would allow some normalization.
The United States has more than 430,000 known cases of coronavirus and more than 14,000 deaths. Many of its workers are inactive amid confinement orders from most states, and national guidelines for social distancing are in effect until at least April 30.
Fauci has consistently insisted that social distancing must be maintained now, and that the virus, not people's wishes, is what makes the "timeline" of when the measures could be relaxed.
"We're not there yet," Crystal Watson, an assistant professor at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health, told CNN on Thursday.
Watson is a co-author of a report that suggests prerequisites for the reopening of the economy, including a sustained reduction of cases over 14 days, and better capabilities to assess people and monitor and track cases.
Alleviating social distancing too soon runs the risk of "a great resurgence, and much worse than we've already seen," he told CNN's "New Day."
Coronavirus in the USA with discouraging projections 0:49The economy takes a sharp hit, while experts say social distancing is working
The Trump administration and health officials are navigating potentially competitive circumstances: tough economic news as workers are staying home; and indications that social distancing is helping to keep coronavirus deaths low.
Another 6.6 million people filed claims for unemployment benefits last week, data released Thursday showed. This means that more than 16.8 million Americans have sought unemployment aid since mid-March.
Aides to President Donald Trump have begun discussions on a plan to reopen the U.S. economy as early as early May, according to people familiar with the deliberations.
The country set another record for coronavirus deaths in one day on Wednesday, at 1,922, according to data provided by Johns Hopkins University.
However, there is hope that social distancing is working, health experts say, with models that project fewer deaths by the time the pandemic subsides.
The United States will reach its highest daily death toll on or around Sunday, according to models from the University of Washington Institute for Health Measurement and Assessment (IHME) in Seattle. The peak demand for hospital beds and ventilators is projected to reach around Saturday.
On Wednesday, the IHME estimated that 60,415 people in the United States would die from coronavirus disease in August, assuming that social distancing policies continue through May. That projection is less than the figure the model predicted earlier in the week: 82,000.
That decline is due to actions taken by Americans, said White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx.
"What has been so remarkable, I think, to those of us who have been in the field of science for so long," said Birx, "is how important behavior change is and how amazing Americans are at adapting and keep going during these behavior changes. ”
However, some hospitals in key locations like Detroit and New York still struggle to keep up with the patient influx weeks. Detroit's Sinai-Grace Hospital has been so overwhelmed that at least two people have died in the hallways of the emergency room before help arrives, health workers told CNN.
Miguel Díaz, who works for the city of Hialeah in Florida, delivers unemployment applications to people in their vehicles in front of a library on Wednesday. (Credit: Joe Raedle / Getty Images)
CDC teams are protecting areas with low transmission
Some areas have yet to see high rates of virus transmission, and the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has deployed eight teams in hopes of keeping the trend going, a federal official involved in CNN told CNN. day by day the coronavirus response.
The "community protection field teams" work directly with state and local health departments, but the official declined to say where the teams would be located.
A second federal health official said at least one would be deployed in Wyoming.
“They have not had many cases. You want to make sure it stays that way, ”the senior federal health official told CNN when asked about Wyoming. “You work closely with them to make sure that their public health capacity is working. Find cases, disrupt groups and do containment instead of mitigation, ”said the official.
"If containment is achieved, you don't have to have stronger mitigation restrictions."
Philadelphia and Washington expected to be new hotspots
Philadelphia and Washington are expected to be new hot spots for the coronavirus pandemic, White House coronavirus response coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx said Wednesday in a conference call with Democrats in the House of Representatives, according to a source. In the call.
Vice President Mike Pence said Wednesday that he was informed that Philadelphia is "an area of particular concern."
"Our message to the people of the Philadelphia area is now more than ever, to practice social distancing so that Philadelphia, and to some extent even Pittsburgh, do not have to endure what other communities before them had to endure," said Pence.
Birx added that the Philadelphia metropolitan area is seeing 1,400 cases per day and the Baltimore / Washington area is seeing a 15% positivity rate with 200 cases per day in the first and 500 cases per day in the second.
(Credit: Alex Milan Tracy / Sipa USA) (Sipa via AP Images)
Outbreaks in jails and prisons
A Chicago jail is now the largest known source of coronavirus infections in the United States outside of medical facilities, according to the Cook County Sheriff's Office.
The Cook County Sheriff's Office said Wednesday that 251 detainees and 150 members of the Cook County Jail staff tested positive for the virus. Of those detained sick with the outbreak, 22 were hospitalized for treatment and another 31 have been transferred to a recovery center.
One detainee died of apparent complications from coronavirus, but the autopsy is pending, the sheriff's office said.
"Prisons in this country are Petri dishes. They are the government equivalent of nursing homes or cruise ships, ”said Toni Preckwinkle, chairman of the Cook County board. "It is very difficult in a prison to maintain social distance."
In the California prison system, the number of infected inmates increased more than sevenfold in just over a week and staff cases nearly tripled, the California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said Wednesday.
"There are people in Italy dying, people in Spain dying, people in the United States dying, people buying panic, people worried and people scared," said Samuel Brown, an inmate at California State Prison, Los Angeles County. “And the truth of the matter is that prisoners are people. So we are also afraid. "
"And there is also the possibility that we will die."
States say measures are working
Some states report that social distancing measures and confinement orders are working to mitigate the virus.
On Wednesday, Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson praised the state's specific approach and social distancing measures for residents, noting that the state has 2.5 hospitalizations per 100,000 people.
"That makes a difference in how we get out of this, how soon we get out of this, and how we get past that curve, and so I want to thank everyone for paying so much attention and doing a good job," said Hutchinson.
And although Kentucky experienced its largest increase in cases reported Wednesday, Gov. Andy Beshear said the state's low numbers relative to the rest of the nation show that social distancing measures are working.
Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards said Wednesday that while the state's cases are still growing, the growth trajectory is less than anticipated. But, he said, the good news should not be a signal for residents to let their guard down when it comes to social distancing and asked to remain in their homes or else the cases will increase again.
In California, with more than 18,700 cases, social distancing has decreased duplication of cases in the Santa Clara country from three days to two weeks or more, said Dr. Sarah Cody, Health Officer.
"We cannot relax. Most of the people who live in our community are still susceptible, ”Cody emphasized. "This is a marathon, maybe an ultramarathon."
- CNN's Holly Yan, Steve Almasy, Kevin Liptak, Paul P. Murphy, Shelby Lin Erdman, Nick Valencia and Pierre Meilhan contributed to this report.
Anthony Faucicovid-19
