TLTP
\nWASHINGTON
\nUnlike countries in Europe, the US failed to get the first wave of COVID-19 under control and is now \u2018knee-deep\u2019 in a new surge of it, according to the country\u2019s top epidemic adviser Anthony Fauci.
\nThe coronavirus situation in the US is \u201cnot very good,\u201d Fauci said on Monday. In less than two weeks, the number of new COVID-19 cases in the country has doubled and reached record numbers, with a spike of over 57,000 recorded last week. Some people have called this a second wave of the disease, but Fauci said that is not the case. \u201cWe are still knee-deep in the first wave of this. And I would say this would not be considered a wave; it was a surge, or resurgence, of infections superimposed on a baseline that never got down to where we wanted to go,\u201d Fauci said.
\nThe situation in Europe is quite different, he added, saying that European nations have managed to take their first wave of COVID-19 under control and push its spread down to the baseline.
\nFauci stressed that the situation needs to be addressed immediately. He said that, while measures may vary for different localities, his general advice remains the same: keep a distance between people, avoid crowds, wear masks when going outside, wash your hands often, and if you organize a social function keep the number of guests small and try to hold it outdoors.
\n\u201cThose are fundamental, and everybody can do that right now,\u201d he said.
\nCOVID-19 is a politically divisive issue in the US, where lockdowns and other measures intended to slow the coronavirus caused protests by people who saw them as an infringement on their civil rights. President Donald Trump voiced his support for some of these rallies, prompting his opponents to pile onto the protesters and accuse them and the president of denying science and endangering American lives.
\nThe reaction to the anti-racism protests that have gripped the country since the death of George Floyd in May has been notably different. Some people say the threat posed by racism trumps whatever danger may come from holding mass gatherings during an epidemic, and thus opposing them is wrong.
\nThe US is the country hit worst by COVID-19, with almost three million identified cases and over 130,000 deaths, according to a tally by the Johns Hopkins University. The global death toll currently stands at over 538,000, with 11.6 million cases worldwide. Trump\u2019s critics blame him for botching the national response to the pandemic. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
TLTP WASHINGTON Unlike countries in Europe, the US failed to get the first wave of COVID-19 under control and is now \u2018knee-deep\u2019 in a new surge of it, according to the country\u2019s top epidemic adviser Anthony Fauci. The coronavirus situation in the US is \u201cnot very good,\u201d Fauci said on Monday. In less than two […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-130962","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-world"},"yoast_head":"\n