During a Dec. 29 interview with CNN’s Jim Sciutto, Fauci said that the coronavirus numbers have gotten too high during this surge. According to The New York Times, coronavirus case numbers for December have been in the 200,000s. In comparison, the surge in July only reached the 70,000s. “We’re in such a surge that has just gotten out of control in many respects,” he explained. “If you look at the history… we had a surge in the late winter, early spring, another surge in the early summer. We’re, right now, in a surge whose incline, whose inflection, is very sharp.” And for more details on the current situation, This Is How Bad the COVID Outbreak Is in Your State. Fauci believes the ongoing surge has created a “difficult situation” because the country hasn’t gotten to a low baseline. Without this baseline, the U.S. can’t control COVID community spread. “When you get to the numbers that we’re in right now, it really is very, very difficult to do effective identification, isolation, and contact tracing,” Fauci explained. And for the doctor’s thoughts on the future of the pandemic, Dr. Fauci Just Said These 3 Things Are About to Make COVID Worse. The infectious disease expert has been a big proponent of mitigating coronavirus spread by slowing down holiday travel. However, Fauci says that now that we’re nearing the end of the holiday season, it’s too late to make any real difference. According to the Transportation Security Administration (TSA), two travel records for this year have been made this month alone. On Dec. 23, a record-breaking 1,191,123 people traveled through airports for the holidays. And then on Dec. 27, that record was broken again with 1,284,599 people traveling. And for more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. While December has been the deadliest month of the pandemic thus far, Fauci says January may be even worse. He cautions that those who have already traveled need to refrain from congregating with large numbers of people in social settings.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb “Try to keep it restricted to the immediate family and the immediate household. Once you get to large numbers of people at a dinner inside, poor air ventilation and circulation, that’s when you get in trouble,” Fauci said. “That’s what we’re concerned about—that in addition to the surge, we’re going to have an increase superimposed upon that surge which could make January even worse than December.” And for more ways to protect yourself, If You Don’t Have This in Your Home, You’re at Higher Risk for COVID.
