Dr. Anthony Fauci does not seem to agree with the Florida governor’s move to allow bars and restaurants to open at full capacity as the U.S. continues to combat the coronavirus.
Speaking on “Good Morning America” Monday morning, Fauci was asked about Florida’s recent move on opening restaurants and bars amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
“That is very concerning to me,” Fauci declared. “We have always said that, myself and Dr. Deborah Birx, who is the coordinator of the task force, that that is something we really need to be careful about.”
He continued to note that when “you’re dealing with community spread” and congregate settings, “particularly without masks, you’re really asking for trouble.”
“Now’s the time actually to double down a bit. I don’t mean close. When I say that… we’re not talking about shutting anything down. We’re talking about commonsense-type of public health measures that we’ve been talking about all along.”
On Friday, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) signed an executive order to allow restaurants and bars to open at full capacity.
Watch Fauci’s interview below:
After ABC News’ Amy Robach noted Fauci’s previous remarks that the U.S. needed to get to 10,000 cases a day by the fall to get some control on the virus, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said, “We’re not in a good place with regard to what I had said back then.”
Nearly half of the states in the country are now seeing an increase in new COVID-19 infections.
“There are certainly parts of the country that are doing well, but, as you mentioned correctly, there are states that are starting to show uptick in cases and even some increase in hospitalizations in some states,” Fauci noted.
He added, “I hope not, but we very well might start seeing increases in deaths.”
Through the month of August and the start of September, the U.S. was seeing an overall decrease in daily COVID-19 cases reported. However, since Sept. 13 there has been a slight increase. The U.S. has more than 7.1 million positive coronavirus cases reported, with over 204,000 deaths due to the virus.