“This is not out of control, but it requires a lot of effort.”
HHS testing czar Brett Giroir implored Americans to wear masks in public Sunday and said “everything should be on the table” when asked if more stringent lockdowns might be needed in southern states where the coronavirus cases are shattering record after record.
“For this to work, we have to have like 90 percent of people wearing a mask in public in the hot spot areas,” Giroir said on ABC’s “This Week.” “If we don’t have that, we will not get control of the virus.”
He maintained the U.S. has enough tests to track the virus’s spread despite reports of long wait times at testing sites and increasing turnaround times at commercial laboratories like Quest Diagnostics and LabCorp. More than 823,000 coronavirus tests were performed on Friday, according to the COVID Tracking Project.
…….
“On the testing side, we have good early signals now,” Giroir said on “Meet the Press.” “We know that an increase in positivity heralds the rest down the line. An increase in positivity will mean an increase in infections about a week later, which’ll mean emergency room hospitalization and, unfortunately, deaths.”
While positivity — the percent of tests returning positive — is beginning to drop, hospitalizations will likely keep climbing for some time. About 63,000 coronavirus patients are currently in hospitals, according to Giroir.
“We do expect deaths to go up,” Giroir said on “This Week.” “If you have more cases, more hospitalizations we do expect to see that over the next two to three weeks before this turns around.”
In the fall, tens of millions of coronavirus tests will be needed per month to prepare for the possibility the virus will be worse, according to Giroir. Practicing social distancing, hand-washing, and mask-wearing are all critical preventative steps for the public.
- Discussion
-
HHS testing czar Brett Giroir implored Americans to wear masks in public and said “everything should be on the table” when asked if more stringent lockdowns might be needed in southern states with rising cases https://t.co/K3oBaRJxHX
— POLITICO (@politico) July 12, 2020
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.