Stark Warnings for Americans Bent on Celebrating 4th of July

According to Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health,US COVID-19 infections rose by a record 47,000 yesterday—and Americans could see 100,000 new cases a day, warns Anthony Fauci, barring dramatic steps to block the spread, Reuters reports.

Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told a Senate committee yesterday that some states brushed past reopening guidelines—and he’s seeing an “all-or-nothing approach” when it comes to physical distancing and wearing masks. And the surge in cases in southern and western states “puts the entire country at risk,” he says.

Caitlin Rivers of the Johns Hopkins Center for Health Security tweeted a warning to Americans celebrating the Fourth of July this weekend: “Our outbreak is headed in the wrong direction at top speed, which means there is a lot of virus circulating in many communities.” She urges people to take physical distancing, masks, and hand hygiene seriously.

And in remarks on MSNBC, Ashish Jha, director of the Harvard Global Health Institute, implored US officials to “mandate wearing masks, get rid of large indoor gatherings, including indoor dining at bars and restaurants, and ramp up testing and contact tracing.”