COVID Update: Fauci warns that progress in the fight against coronavirus appears to be stagnant

WASHINGTON – At the White House meeting of the COVID response team on Friday, US health officials warned that recent progress in reducing the number of cases seems to have stalled and that restrictions should not be eased until the baseline of the US is much smaller.

The numbers have plummeted since early January, but the seven-day average remains at around 70,000.

It rivals last summer’s peak and threatens to push the US in the wrong direction.

“Certainly 70,000 are not there. Not even close,” said Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation’s greatest expert on infectious diseases. “You have to go down on the positivity of the test at the same time as you increase the vaccine.”

Fauci said he wants to see where the numbers go next week before advising people to ease restrictions.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, agreed.

“The latest data suggests that these declines could stop, potentially leveling and (at) another very large number,” she said. “We at the CDC consider this a very worrying change in trajectory.”

“We may end the virus, but the virus does not end with us. We cannot feel comfortable or give in to a false sense of security that the worst of the pandemic is behind us,” she said.

Fauci says next week will be critical.

“We don’t want to be people who always look at the dark side of things, but you want to be realistic,” he said. “So we have to look carefully at what happens next week with these numbers, before you start to make sense of relaxation with certain restrictions. So watch it carefully and be prepared to react to what is actually happening. ”