As the U.S. sees upwards of 160,000 new COVID-19 cases per day, the nation's top infectious disease expert says the country is far from in control of the pandemic.
'The endgame is to suppress the virus,' Dr Anthony Fauci told Axios in an interview on Thursday.
But with the current high case level, 'we're still in pandemic mode,' he said.
Pandemic hotspots such as South Carolina, West Virginia, and Idaho exemplify the country's current lack of control over the coronavirus.
In order to achieve control over the virus - which means recording under 10,000 new cases a day, according to Fauci - the U.S. needs to vaccinate more people.
President Joe Biden's administration is pushing for this with a new Covid plan, which was announced on Thursday.
Dr Anthony Fauci warns that the pandemic may not be over for a long time, as case counts are about 16 times too high. Pictured: Fauci participates in a network interview at the White House in Washington, D.C., August 2021
At over 150,000 new cases a day, the country is far from controlling the pandemic
Earlier in summer 2021 - as millions of Americans got vaccinated each day and cases dropped to their lowest levels yet - many hoped that the pandemic could finally end in the U.S.
But as the Delta variant now tears through the country and sends thousands of patients to hospitals, it's clear that the pandemic's end is, in fact, a long way out.
Fauci made that clear in an interview with Axios on Thursday.
'The endgame is to suppress the virus. Right now, we're still in pandemic mode, because we have 160,000 new infections a day,' he said.
According to data from Johns Hopkins, the country is currently seeing between 150,000 and 160,000 new cases per day - though the Labor Day weekend may have delayed some recent cases from being reported.
Fauci called these numbers 'not even modestly good control,' explaining that the coronavirus is still 'a public health threat.'
'In a country of our size, you can't be hanging around and having 100,000 infections a day,' Fauci said.
'You've got to get well below 10,000 before you start feeling comfortable.'
In other words, the country's Covid case numbers are currently about 16 times too high.
The U.S. briefly saw daily case numbers between 10,000 and 15,000 in late June, but numbers shot up through July and August as the highly contagious Delta variant spread through the country.
Now, Delta is
