Dr. Anthony Fauci warned Thursday that more states may be headed for a coronavirus surge.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and member of the White House coronavirus task force, noted that while Southern states and California were starting to see a decline in cases, other states may be heading in the wrong direction.
“This is the thing that is disturbing to me, is that we are starting to see the inkling of the upticks in the percent of the tests that are positive … we know now, from past sad experience, that’s a predictor that you are going to have more surges,” Fauci said during a conversation Thursday with National Geographic.
Michigan experienced an uptick in its positivity rate in late July, from about 2.2% to 3.4%. That led Gov. Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, to reimpose restrictions on bars and indoor gatherings in some areas of the state.
Other states that appear to have an increase in their positivity rates are Hawaii, Illinois, Indiana, Minnesota, Montana, North Dakota, and South Dakota, according to the Coronavirus Resource Center at Johns Hopkins University.
Fauci hinted that a national strategy to deal with the virus was needed.
“Unless we all pull together… and we don’t have disparities [where] some states are doing this and some states are doing that, we’re going to have this up and down,” he said. “Bottom line is, I’m not pleased with how things are going.”
