Fauci: 'Precarious situation' with virus surge in the US

government's top infectious disease expert says U.S. is facing a continuing surge of coronavirus cases coming off Thanksgiving holiday and into approaching Christmas season. "When you look at numbers, almost every day, eir breaks a record or ties a record of cases. To have a baseline of between one or two hundred thousand cases a day is extraordinary," Dr. Anthony Fauci said during an online interview Monday with Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.

comment comes as Americans returning from Thanksgiving break faced strict new coronavirus measures around country Monday as health officials brace for a disastrous worsening of nationwide surge because of holiday garings over long weekend.

Fauci warned on ABC over weekend that country could see a "surge upon surge" of infections tied to Thanksgiving. And White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr. Deborah Birx told CBS that people who traveled should "assume that you were exposed and you became infected," and get tested if y experience symptoms.

Health experts h pleed with Americans to stay home over Thanksgiving and t gar with anyone who didn't live with m. Neverless, almost 1.2 million people passed through U.S. airports Sunday, most since pandemic gripped country in March, and ors took to highways to be with family and friends.

w y're being urged to watch for any signs of illness and get tested right away if y experience symptoms.Health officials are urging people to remain vigilant until a vaccine becomes widely available, which is t expected to happen for at least a few months.

On Monday, Moderna Inc. said it will ask U.S. and European regulators to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine as new study results confirm shots offer strong protection. Pfizer is also seeking approval for its vaccine and hopes to begin ministering shots in U.S. in December.

virus is blamed for over 267,000 deaths and more than 13.4 million confirmed infections in U.S. country on aver is seeing more than 160,000 new cases per day and over 1,400 deaths - a toll on par with what nation witnessed in mid-May, when New York City was epicenter. A record 90,000 people were in hospital with virus in U.S. as of Sunday, pushing many medical institutions to limit.

(Im Credit: AP)