Fauci warns of post-holiday Covid surge in US

US health adviser warns worst may be to come as increased travel over Christmas and New Year’s could lead to surge in infections

Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Associated Press/Bloomberg

Dr Anthony Fauci warned on Sunday that the Covid-19 crisis in the US may become worse than ever after an increase in holiday travel among Americans.

Dr Fauci, head of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned of a surge in cases after Christmas and New Year’s during an interview on CNN.

Holiday gatherings were “going to happen” despite the warnings from public health officials, he told CNN, saying "it's very tough for people not to do that".

“We’re really at a very critical point,” Dr Fauci said.

He said that a surge of infections through people gathering and travelling would put more pressure on the health system.

“With the hospitalisations over 120,000, we really are at a critical stage," Dr Fauci said.

He endorsed president-elect Joe Biden’s assessment on Wednesday that the pandemic’s “darkest days are ahead of us, not behind us".

“We’re averaging a death rate of close to 3,000 a day,” Mr Biden said.

“That means we will lose tens of thousands of more lives in the months to come and the vaccine won’t be able to stop that.”

More than 340,000 Americans have already died from Covid-19, and the US has repeatedly passed its daily records for the highest number of coronavirus infections several times in December.

The virus infected about 226,000 Americans on Saturday.

While the US has started to inoculate front-line healthcare workers and residents in long-term care centres, it will take months before the majority of Americans will have access to the vaccines.

Dr Fauci predicted that enough Americans would receive the vaccine to achieve herd immunity by the end of summer.

"“I hope that, by the time we get to the fall, we will reach that critical percentage of people,” he said.