Coronavirus: Fauci warns of ‘disturbing surge’ in US cases

Adviser says next few weeks are critically important as states grapple with alarming new trends in both infections and hospital admissions

Dr Anthony Fauci leaves a hearing before the US House of Representatives' Committee on Energy and Commerce (Getty Images)

Dr Anthony Fauci gave an “unvarnished view” of the state of the US outbreak during testimony to the House of Representatives committee on Tuesday, and said the next few weeks could be “critical” as the country tries to bring the virus to heel.

Asked to give his diagnosis by committee chair Frank Pallone, who praised him for his candour, Dr Fauci said the situation in the US is “a mixed bag”.

“In some respects, we’ve done very well. Right now the New York metropolitan area, which has been hit extraordinarily hard, has done very well in bringing the cases down, and using the guidelines that we have very carefully put together in a stepwise fashion to try and carefully reopen their city and their state.

“However, in other areas of the country, we’re now seeing a disturbing surge of infections that looks like it’s a combination, but one of the things is an increase in community spread … We were going down from 30,000 [new cases a day] to 25, to 20, now we sort of stayed about flat and now we’re going up.

“A couple of days ago there were 30,000 new infections. That’s very troublesome to me.”

Dr Fauci was testifying just as several states that recently lifted their lockdowns are scrambling to handle notable surges in new coronavirus diagnoses.

In Florida, governor Ron DeSantis has conceded that the record daily figures of new cases is not just down to an increase in testing, as the positivity rate has risen too. The same dynamic is playing out in Texas, whose governor, Greg Abbott, has urged residents to stay at home where possible.

“Because the spread is so rampant right now,” he told residents on Tuesday, “there’s never a reason for you to have to leave your home.”

Arizona, meanwhile, is seeing its numbers rise particularly sharply; nearly 20 per cent of tests are now coming back positive, and hospital admissions are rising as well. The uptick is kicking in 10 to 14 days after the state began lifting its lockdown – exactly the same time the virus is thought to incubate before symptoms appear.

In his testimony, Dr Fauci said there was no time to waste in turning these trends around.

“Right now, the next couple of weeks are going to be critical in our ability to address those surges that we’re seeing in Florida, in Texas, in Arizona, and in other states, they’re not the only ones that are having a difficulty.

“Bottom line, Mr Chairman: it’s a mixed bag. Some good, and some now we have a problem with.”

Dr Fauci also testified that he and his colleagues had at no point been instructed to “slow down” testing or do fewer tests, as the president recently said he had urged because testing reveals more cases and makes the US look bad.

“None of us have ever been told to slow down on testing. That just is a fact,” said Dr Fauci. “In fact, we will be doing more testing.”