It was around fourteen months back that the first case of coronavirus was reported in Wuhan, China. The coronavirus pandemic soon spread like wildfire in all nooks of the globe, and the United States became the worst affected country due to the virus outbreak.
Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota and a top health advisor to US President Joe Biden, has predicted that the country will soon face a drastic surge in coronavirus positive cases.
UK variant to emerge as the dominant strain
Osterholm suggested that the highly infectious variant of coronavirus that was initially detected in the United Kingdom could soon become the dominant strain in the United States, and if it happens, the country's healthcare sector could face ultimate chaos.
"What we have to do now is also anticipate this and understand that we're going to have to change quickly. As fast as we're opening restaurants, we're likely to be closing them in the near term," said Osterholm, while talking on NBC's Meet the Press.
The comments from Osterholm comes at a time when some areas that include California, and several regions of Illinois are starting to relax COVID-19 restrictions.
Rising figures and Fauci's warning
A few days back, top American immunologist Anthony Fauci claimed that the coronavirus situation in the country could get potentially worse in the coming weeks. According to Fauci, mutated variants in the country are capable of destabilizing the balance of the healthcare sector in the country.
"I think it potentially could get worse. We certainly are seeing, thankfully, a plateauing in cases. However, the thing that's troublesome now, that we really need to keep our eye on, are these variants," said Fauci.
According to the latest statistics, there are more than 26 million COVID-19 positive cases in the United States, and the death toll has already crossed 4,52,000.
