Coronavirus: CDC director warns second outbreak in winter could be 'even more difficult'

'When I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean'

The possibility of a second wave of the coronavirus later this year could be even more difficult to manage than the first outbreak, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) head Robert Redfield told The Washington Post on Tuesday.

“There’s a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through,” Mr Redfield said in an interview with The Post.

“And when I’ve said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don’t understand what I mean.”

The CDC director said that a second outbreak, that coincides with the annual bout of winter flu, could mean that health services in the US become even more overwhelmed and unable to cope.

As the coronavirus pandemic reaches its peak in many of the worst-hit states across the country, hospitals have become overstretched for resources and are struggling to cope with the number of serious cases.

Shortages of ventilators, test kits, and personal protective equipment have put a massive strain on health services not only in the US but across most countries impacted by the pandemic.

However, Mr Redfield insisted that the concision of two respiratory outbreaks in winter is inevitable and would only make the health crisis more "difficult’" to deal with.

“We’re going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time,” he told the newspaper.

Had the flu and the novel coronavirus hit the country at the same time during the initial outbreak, Mr Redfield told The Post: “It could have been really, really, really, really difficult in terms of health capacity.”

The health official said that the government needed to step up their testing to be able to effectively prevent subsequent serious outbreaks, and continue to emphasise the continued importance of social distancing.

Over 815,000 people have been diagnosed with Covid-19 in the United States and over 44,000 people have died of the disease in the country, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University.