The nation’s top infectious disease doctor said the public will likely have to remain at home for the next “several” weeks as part of a social distancing effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus.
“If you look at the trajectory of the curves of outbreaks and other areas, [it’s] at least going to be several weeks,” Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told NBC’s Today show on Friday. “I cannot see that all of a sudden, next week or two weeks from now, it’s going to be over. I don’t think there’s a chance of that. I think it’s going to be several weeks.”
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In a news briefing on Monday, President Trump said people should avoid groups of more than 10 to slow the spread of the coronavirus. Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus response coordinator, said the new guidelines were meant for 15 days.
Fauci said on Tuesday that officials would need “several weeks and maybe longer” to figure out if the restrictive guidelines they issued were effective. Birx said on Wednesday that there will be a large spike in confirmed coronavirus cases in the next few days as testing becomes more readily available.
There have been around 246,444 confirmed coronavirus cases around the world, 86,000 recoveries, and 10,040 deaths, according to the latest reading by the Johns Hopkins University tracker. In the United States, there have been 14,250 cases, 121 recoveries, and 205 deaths.
