While we’re hopeful we’ll see an end to this pandemic with everyone continuing to do their part to halt the spread, this may just be the first fight against the coronavirus. The director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said today that the U.S. should brace for a second wave of coronavirus cases in 2021, according to the New York Post.
Dr. Robert Redfield said COVID-19 may actually turn out to be seasonal like other viruses such as the flu. “I think we have to assume this is like other respiratory viruses, and there will be a seasonality to it,” Redfield told “Good Morning America.”
Redfield said that the country needs to speed up testing capacity now, and implement other control measures, such as contact tracing, to prepare for the possibility of the next large wave of cases.
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“The CDC is science-based, data-driven, (so) until we see it, we don’t know for certain (there will be a resurgence),” Redfield said. “But it is critical that we plan that this virus is likely to follow a seasonality pattern similar to flu, and we’re going to have another battle with it upfront and aggressively next winter.”
Redfield said he refers to the strategy necessary to fight the virus as “block and tackle, block and tackle.”
“We are working hard to augment (public health tools) now so that as we get into the next season, we’ll be able to stay in high containment mode while we complement that with some continued mitigation strategies,” Redfield said.
More than 609,000 cases have been detected in the U.S. and at least 26,000 deaths have been recorded, according to the latest figures from Johns Hopkins University.
A few large, populous areas have recently made it mandatory to wear a mask or some form of a face covering in public. Several cities have also extended stay-at-home guidelines in a continued effort to slow the spread of the virus.
We’ll keep you posted on any updates.
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