New Coronavirus Testing On The Way? What Dr. Fauci Said About The Future Of The Pandemic, Possible Reinfection

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious diseases official amid the ongoing coronavirus outbreak, said Thursday that Americans should expect to see new antibody tests within the coming days or weeks.

"The antibody tests are developed, there are several out there," Fauci said Thursday on NBC News' "Today." "We are told by the people, the companies that make them, that very soon — when they say soon, they're talking days to weeks — that we'd be able to have a large number of these tests available."

CNN reported Friday that a top scientific panel warned the White House about the accuracy of the tests, as a study found that tests missed more than 30% of positive cases.

"These antibody tests are tests we do on other diseases but they need to be validated," Fauci told CNN." You need to make sure they're consistent and that they're accurate. That's what we're doing now — both with the [National Institutes of Health] and the [Food and Drug Administration] is validating them. As soon as they get validated, they will be out there for people to use."

Fauci said the antibody tests are necessary to better understand the scope of the outbreak. He said that "there may be many people out there — and I suspect there are a fair amount — that have been infected, were asymptomatic and didn't know it."

Fauci has also said that the antibody test lets people know if they perhaps were infected and have since recovered. The tests could help to let medical professionals know if a person is "at risk or vulnerable to getting reinfected."

Fauci has stated that individuals who have already had the virus may be protected in the future. "You may have a cohort of people who are actually protected, who have more of a chance at getting back into the normality of society," he said.

As lockdowns continue across the country, Fauci has revised the projection of deaths from the virus in the United States. He claimed that as many as 60,000 Americans could die from the virus, down from the projection of 100,000 to 200,000 deaths made at the end of March.

President Trump on Friday said he wants the U.S. economy to reopen but added that he would not lift restrictive measures in place until the coronavirus subsides. If the U.S. reopens too soon, it could cause a resurgence in cases.

"I've made a lot of big decisions in my life,” Trump said at a press briefing Friday. "This is by far the biggest decision of my life because I have to say, 'O.K. let's go.'"

The coronavirus originated at an animal and seafood market in Wuhan, China and has since spread across the world. The United States has more cases than any other country in the world, with 501,615 infected and 18,777 dead as of Saturday at 8:25 a.m. ET.