Dr. Anthony Fauci warned the governors of four U.S. states that they need to get new infections under control.
If they don’t, they could experience a situation similar to what has happened to some states in the South that are battling a dramatic new surge in infections.
Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, spoke to “ABC News” during a 35-minute interview streamed live on Instagram Wednesday.
Speaking about an “alarming” increase in COVID-19 cases in states like Florida, Texas, California and Arizona —which came as a result of the reopening of the country’s economy —Fauci said that the nation’s health experts are focusing on “a bunch of other states” that have started to show a “very subtle increase in percent positives,” or the percentage of total tests that turned out with positive results.
Specifically, the nation’s top infectious disease expert said that Ohio, Tennessee, Kentucky and Indiana are some of the states that need to get the virus under control.
The increase in percent positives is “a surefire hint that you may be getting into the same sort of trouble with those states that the southern states got into trouble with.”
Fauci said that he and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coordinator on the coronavirus task force, warned those states’ governors during a private call on Tuesday.
He said that they “made the point” in telling the governors that there are a few things they “need to do to prevent that.”
That includes encouraging people to wear face masks; avoid large crowds; practice social distancing; avoid going to bars and wash their hands frequently.
“If we do that, hopefully we’ll prevent multiple other states from becoming just like the southern states,” he said.
Fauci’s warning came just a day before the another grim milestone for the country.
On Wednesday the coronavirus death toll passed the 150,000 mark in the U.S., according to data compiled by Johns Hopkins University.
As of Thursday afternoon, that number has increased to 151,650 deaths, among more than 7.4 million cases of COVID-19.
