Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden’s chief medical adviser, said Sunday that the BA.2 subvariant of the omicron variant of the coronavirus will probably cause an uptick in U.S. cases similar to the one currently being seen in Europe. Fauci, who is also head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC’s “This Week” that it is “no time at all to declare victory, because this virus has fooled us before and we really must be prepared for the possibility that we might get another variant, and we don’t want to be caught flat-footed on that.” Cases are currently rising in Europe again after most countries relaxed all restrictions and the U.S. has typically lagged Europe by a few weeks.
The U.S. COVID numbers continue to decline and the nation is now averaging 29,905 new cases a day, according to a New York Times tracker, down 33% from two weeks ago. The average daily number of hospitalizations stands at 16,465, down 57% from two weeks ago. Deaths are averaging 1,103 a day, down 27% from two weeks ago, but still an undesirably high number. Globally, there have been 470.7 million confirmed cases, according to data aggregated by Johns Hopkins University, and 6.07 million deaths. The U.S. leads the world with 79.7 million cases and 971,162 fatalities.
Market Pulse Stories are Rapid-fire, short news bursts on stocks and markets as they move. Visit MarketWatch.com for more information on this news.
