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Fauci expects more waves of COVID-19 outbreaks, but says US will be better prepared to handle them

Fauci expects more waves of COVID-19 outbreaks, but says US will be better prepared to handle them
Posted at 7:21 AM, Mar 31, 2020
and last updated 2020-03-31 10:55:21-04

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who's become a fixture at White House coronavirus task force briefings, predicts there will be additional waves of COVID-19 infections throughout the fall.

"In fact, I would anticipate that that would actually happen because of the degree of transmissibility.," Fauci said Monday at a press briefing at the White House.

Fauci went on to say that the country would be more prepared for additional outbreaks because the infrastructure to treat the virus would already be in place.

"It will be a totally different ballgame of what happened when we first got hit with it in the beginning of this year, there'll be several things that it'll be different.," he said. "Our ability to go out and be able to test, identify, isolate and contact trace will be orders of magnitude better than what it was just a couple of months ago."

"What we're going through now is going to be more than just lesson learn," Fauci said. "It's going to be things that we have available to us that we did not have before."

Fauci's comments echo those of other federal officials, who believe that the coronavirus will continue to spread even after months-long social distancing orders are lifted.