'Still in pandemic mode': COVID-19 nowhere near 'under control' in US, warns Anthony Fauci

COVID-19 is “nowhere near under control” in United States and cases have surged more than ten times higher than y need to be in order to end pandemic, US top infectious disease expert Dr. Anthony Fauci said on Friday. His remarks follow warnings about upcoming coronavirus mutations that he stated could be even more contagious than delta of coronavirus lineage. director of National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) told Axios in an interview that US has a mounting caselo of COVID-19 which is "not even modestly good control". "Until cases dip to 10,000 a day, we are still in full ‘pandemic mode’," infectious disease expert said. 

" endgame is to suppress virus. Right now, we're still in pandemic mode, because we have 160,000 new infections a day. That's not even modestly good control ... which means it's a public health threat," Fauci told Axios. “In a country of our size, you can’t be hanging around and having 100,000 infections a day. You’ve got to get well below 10,000 before you start feeling comfortable,” he ded.

'Can't have 100,000 infections a day,' warns Fauci 

Even as 7-day average in US declined to 140,000 cases,  Dr. Fauci stressed that reported case numbers are low and actual infections could be much higher. Rates this high make it impossible to return to some semblance of normal life, Fauci reportedly said. “In a country of our size, you can’t be hanging around and having 100,000 infections a day. You’ve got to get well below 10,000 before you start feeling comfortable,” said NIAID chief. Although he ded that pandemic’s threat should lessen as vaccination rate goes up. It is to be noted that America has a significantly higher percentage of ‘vaccine hesitant’ population, not willing to get shots citing health reasons.

According to US CDC data, as COVID-19 cases dipped below 148,000, an approximately 5 percent decrease in last 14-day period, rate of hospitalisation driven by delta variant has surged by 1 percent. In US, thus far, 53 percent of total population is fully vaccinated, and an estimated 63 percent has received at least 1 shot. Fauci emphasised importance of vaccinations, saying "you'll still get some people getting infected, but you're not going to have it as a public health threat". Fauci h also earlier clarified on television that  vaccination is key to stopping  COVID-19 community spre.

He said, “You can get infected even if you get no symptoms or minimally symptomatic and n pass it on to someone who in fact might be very vulnerable ― an elderly person, a person with an underlying disease.” He continued, “So when you’re dealing with an outbreak of infectious disease, it isn’t only about you. re is a societal responsibility that we all have.”