Coronavirus  hot spots should pause reopening, not shut down again, recommends infectious diseases expert

WASHINGTON (TIP): States with spiking coronavirus cases still can contain them by pausing their reopening processes, rather than shutting down a second time, one of the nation’s top infectious disease experts said Thursday, July 9.

Dr. Anthony Fauci’s comments at an event hosted by The Hill news outlet contrast with what he said a day earlier: that states with a serious coronavirus problem “should seriously look at shutting down.”

“Rather than think in terms of reverting back down to a complete shutdown, I would think we need to get the states pausing in their opening process,” Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told The Hill’s Editor-at-Large Steve Clemons on Thursday.

“If we can do that consistently, I will tell you, almost certainly, you’re going to see a down curve of those infections,” Fauci said.

On Wednesday, July 8, Fauci told the Wall Street Journal that a second shutdown might be the best move for states struggling with burgeoning coronavirus cases and hospitalizations.

“I think any state that is having a serious problem, that state should seriously look at shutting down,” Fauci told the newspaper in a podcast.

He did say Wednesday that simple steps short of full economic lockdowns — controlling crowds, wearing masks and doing a better job at physical distancing — would help.

The country and some states are setting records for average daily officially reported cases, ICUs in hot spots are reaching capacity, and most states are seeing spikes, recalling the uncertainty of months ago when the virus first broke out.

Another health expert echoed Fauci’s initial comment about second shutdowns.

“If you’re not doing the … things we’ve talked about in the past to get this outbreak under control, starting with test and trace … your only option is to shut down,” Dr. Ali Khan, former director of the CDC’s public health preparedness office said.

Climbing case numbers have motivated many states to pause or roll back plans to reopen economies after widespread shutdowns in the spring.

The US reached more than 3 million coronavirus cases this week, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. At least 33 states as of Thursday morning have seen an upward trend in average daily cases — an increase of at least 10% — over the last week.

Some states have recently reported alarming rates at which people are testing positive: 28% in Arizona; 26% in Texas; and 19% in Florida, according to The Covid Tracking Project.

Previous recommendations for reopening economies, expressed by the CDC, called for test-positivity rates of no greater than 20% just to reach first-phase reopenings, and less than 10% for fuller reopenings.

The country still is reckoning with job losses from the first stay-at-home orders. Though millions of jobs have come back, 18.1 million Americans currently are on continued unemployment claims, meaning they filed at least two straight weeks, the Department of Labor said Thursday, July 9.

And more than 3 million Americans appear to have lost jobs that aren’t coming back any time soon, economists say.