(NEW YORK) — Over the weekend, the U.S. surpassed 13 million COVID-19 cases — just six days after the nation reported 12 million infections. In all, the nation reported four million new cases in a month.
Speaking to ABC’s This Week, Dr. Anthony Fauci delivered the grim confirmation that it will be the new normal for the nation to see a million new cases each week.
“We said that these things would happen, as we got into the cold weather and as we began traveling, and they’ve happened. It’s going to happen again,” said Fauci on Sunday, noting that the nation will continue to break weekly records of new cases.
“I cannot see, all of a sudden, a relaxation of the kinds of recommendations or restrictions because we’re getting into colder weather, and in — in an even larger holiday season as people travel to come back and forth for Christmas,” the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases proclaimed.
“When you have the kind of inflection that we have, it doesn’t all of a sudden turn around like that.”
More than eight million Americans traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday, against the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s encouragement. Health officials already expressed concern that holiday gatherings and travel will become super spreader events.
COVID-19, as of Sunday, infected nearly 13.4 million people and killed close to 267,000 — according to Johns Hopkins University.
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