While a vaccine for the coronavirus may be far off, reopening parts of the United States may not be.
Dr. Anthony Fauci is offering Americans some hope as he believes a gradual rollback of coronavirus restrictions may happen sooner rather than later.
CNN’s Jake Tapper asked Fauci when he believes that could happen.
“You know I think it could probably start at least in some ways maybe next month,” Fauci said.
Watch his comments below:
Dr. Anthony Fauci expresses “hopeful… cautious optimism” as signs emerge that the coronavirus curve may have begun to flatten. https://t.co/Y3z65Z1EFy pic.twitter.com/YUfyXKPLdz
— State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) April 12, 2020
Tapper asked Fauci about the availability of testing and when he thinks the United States will take those steps to reopen.
Fauci explained that it is not going to happen all at once, it is going to be a gradual pulling back on those restrictions.
“It is not going to be a light switch,” Fauci said. “It’s going to be depending where you are in the country, the nature of the outbreak that you’ve already experienced, and the threat of an outbreak that you may not have experienced.”
He reiterated it is going to be depending on different parts of the country and how they are being affected by the coronavirus.
Fauci described how, for example, New York is going to be very different from Arkansas as New York has become the epicenter of the coronavirus.
As of Sunday afternoon, New York is reporting at least 180,458 coronavirus cases with up to 8,627 deaths.
He compared different parts of the country including Washington state as it has been able to prevent the spike other states are seeing.
Fauci pointed out states are going to have to take different approaches.
“I think it’s going to have to be something that is not one size fits all,” Fauci said.
The United States has become the nation with the most coronavirus cases worldwide. As of Sunday afternoon, the United States has reported up to 523,339 coronavirus cases and at least 21,418 deaths.