The former commissioner of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) says he believes the recent Delta-fueled surge will be the final wave of the pandemic.
Speaking to The New York Times on Monday, Dr Scott Gottlieb said that unless something unexpected occurs, such as the emergence of a new variant, Covid is on its way to becoming an endemic disease.
This means the virus will always be present in the population but circulating at low rates, similar to the seasonal flu.
'Barring something unexpected, I'm of the opinion that this is the last major wave of infection,' Gottlieb told The Times.
Between the high rates of vaccination and the number of people who have protection through natural immunity, he says that another wave as deadly as the one caused by Delta will not be possible.
His comments come as COVID-19 cases continue to fall by more than 30 percent to the lowest levels seen since in more than two months.
Former FDA commissioner Dr Scott Gottlieb said on Monday that he believes the fourth wave of the pandemic fueled by the Delta variant will be the last surge. Pictured: Gottlieb testifies before a Senate Health Education Labor and Pension Committee confirmation hearing, April 2017
The U.S. recorded 95,756 new cases of Covid on Tuesday with a seven-day rolling average of 103,000, a decline of 33% from the rolling average of 154,553 reported four weeks ago
COVID-19 hospitalizations have also declined, falling 30.9% from a peak of 101,050 in late August to 69,788 on Tuesday
Forty-one states and the District of Columbia have seen Covid infections either decline or hold steady over the last week
Over the last several weeks, the rate of increase of new coronavirus cases had been significantly slowing before it began declining in mid-September.
On Tuesday, the U.S. recorded 95,756 new cases of COVID-19 with a seven-day rolling average of 103,000, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
That figure is a drop of 33 percent from the rolling average of 154,553 reported four weeks ago.
What's more, it's the lowest number reported since August 5, when the seven-day rolling average sat at 98,518, according to a DailyMail.com analysis of the data.
Additionally, 41 U.S. states and the District of Columbia have seen Covid infections either decline or hold steady over the last week with just nine states seeing increases.
COVID-19 hospitalizations are also trending downward, falling 30.9 percent from a peak of 101,050 in late August to 69,788, according to the U.S. Department of
