Top government infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci is expecting a turnaround in the pandemic next week due to social distancing measures that have driven down new hospitalization rates.
“At the same time as we’re seeing an increase in death, like typically what we’re seeing now in New York, over the last few days, there’s been a stabilization and a decrease in the hospitalizations, admissions to intensive care, and the requirements for intubations,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told Fox News Wednesday.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo announced during his Tuesday press briefing that the total number of coronavirus hospitalizations in New York is leveling off, which he said is a positive effect of social distancing. Meanwhile, a record 731 people in New York died on Monday, making the number of deaths due to the coronavirus greater than 5,400.
Fauci said that, while the number of deaths is “sobering,” the number of new cases fueling the epidemic will decline by next week.
“We predicted over the weekend that it’s going to be a bad week for deaths, but driving that and ahead of that is the fact that we’re going to start to see the beginning of a turnaround,” Fauci said.
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Social distancing efforts are working, Fauci said, and must continue in order to prolong a decrease in new cases. Vice President Mike Pence called the leveling off of new cases “glimmers of hope” during Tuesday’s White House briefing, adding that now is the time to “redouble our efforts” to slow the growth of new cases by staying away from others and self-quarantining.
In fact, the number of new cases reported on Sunday was about the same as those reported on Monday — about 29,000, according to Johns Hopkins University data. The case count in the United States is approaching 400,000, and almost 13,000 people have died.
