Americans, especially those who are vulnerable, may need to stop attending big gatherings as the coronavirus spreads through U.S. communities, a top health official said on Sunday, adding that the possibility of large-scale quarantines cannot be ruled out, Reuters informed.
Anthony Fauci, the head of the infectious diseases unit at the National Institutes of Health, said on NBC’s “Meet the Press” that after initial missteps distributing tests, there should be 400,000 more tests available by Monday and 4 million by the end of the week.
In the United States, 19 people have died out of about 450 reported cases of coronavirus, which originated in China last year and causes the sometimes deadly respiratory illness COVID-19. The outbreak has killed more than 3,600 globally.
More than half of the 50 U.S. states have reported cases. As the outbreak spreads, daily life has been increasingly disrupted, with concerts and conferences canceled and universities telling students to stay home and take classes online.
To contain the outbreak in China, the government quarantined millions of people for weeks. Italy has announced similar measures, locking down 16 million people in the north of the country.
As recently as Saturday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would continue to hold his political rallies, which sometimes draw up to 20,000 people. The Democrats competing to challenge him in the Nov. 3 presidential election, U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders and former Vice President Joe Biden, have not canceled any campaign events so far.
Germany, which has nearly 1,000 cases, on Sunday urged the cancellation of all events with more than 1,000 people.
Asked about quarantines in China and Italy, Fauci said he could not rule out similar actions in the United States.
“You don’t want to alarm people, but given the spread we see, anything is possible, and that’s the reason why we’ve got to be prepared to take whatever action is appropriate to contain and mitigate the outbreak,” he said on “Fox News Sunday”.
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