Dr. Anthony Fauci has predicted that COVID-19 deaths will start to go down this winter following surges across the country caused by the Delta variant.
In an interview with Greta Van Susteren that will be aired on Sunday, the White House chief medical advisor was asked whether he anticipates there will be another wave of cases this coming winter, the Hill reported.
“Fortunately, right now, over the last few weeks, we’ve seen a turnaround in the slope in going down in both cases and hospitalizations. Deaths are still up, but it’s really flattening, so it’s a lagging indicator,” Fauci said.
“I strongly suspect that you’re going to start seeing the deaths go down similar to the hospitalizations; how quickly they go down and how thoroughly they go down is going to depend a lot on a number of circumstances, which will be influenced by things like the colder weather, people doing things indoors,” he continued.
Fauci urged Americans to wear masks in crowded settings, even if they’re vaccinated and outdoors.
“When you have a lot of infection in the community, even though you’re vaccinated, when you are not home but outside in congregate settings in the public, wearing masks, I think would be very prudent,” he said.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said that deaths have been trending downward for the past three weeks, falling from a seven-day rolling average of 1,767 per day on Sept. 15 to 1,418 on Oct. 7.
The US reached the grim milestone of 700,000 virus-related deaths earlier this month.
