Dr. Anthony Fauci said the United States could start to slowly reopen the economy in May as coronavirus cases start leveling off in hot spots throughout the country.
The director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases acknowledged that the country suffered its deadliest week since the pandemic began during an interview with CNN on Sunday. While he mourned the losses that the nation suffered, he also highlighted some points of optimism that have started to shine through in the outbreak.
“The New York metropolitan area had a really terrible, terrible week of suffering and death. Nonetheless, the indications of that part of this machine that drives this outbreak is starting to level off, because on the same day that the New York metropolitan area had the highest number of deaths they had — when you look at the admissions, the hospitalizations, the intensive care, and the need to intubate — that not only has flattened, it’s starting to turn the corner,” Fauci explained.
He continued, “So that’s what we’re hopeful. And it’s, you know, cautious optimism, that we’re seeing that decrease. And if you look at the patterns of curves in other countries. Once we turn that corner, hopefully, we’ll see a sharp decline, and then you can start thinking about how we can keep it that way and prevent it from resurging when you’re starting to think about a gradual reentry of some sort of normality.”
Fauci noted that the country might start to reopen in parts of the nation that have suffered smaller outbreaks on a “rolling” basis. He claimed that some parts of the economy might reopen in May but noted that conditions in the country could change.
“I think it could probably start, at least in some ways, maybe next month. And again, Jake, it’s so difficult to make those kinds of predictions, because they always get thrown back at you if it doesn’t happen. Not by you, but, you know, by any number of people,” Fauci said.
He added, “We are hoping that at the end of the month, we can look around and say, ‘OK, is there any element here that we can safely and cautiously start pulling back on?’ If so, do it. If not, then just continue to hunker down.”
As of Sunday morning, the U.S. had more than 530,000 confirmed cases of the COVID-19 virus and 20,608 related deaths.
