US Is 'Struggling' To Get Coronavirus Outbreak Under Control, Fauci Says

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, warned Americans Sunday to be prepared for the upcoming “bad week” as the U.S. was finding it hard to control the novel coronavirus outbreak in the nation.

Speaking on CBS News' 'Face the Nation,' Fauci said that the coronavirus situation is not under control.

“I will not say we have it under control. ... That would be a false statement. We are struggling to get it under control. And that's the issue that's at hand right now. The thing that's important is that what you see is increases in new cases, which then start to flatten out,” he said.

Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, added that while it would be shocking to some, the situation was certainly going to get worse before it turns around and the nation needs to be prepared for it, NBC News reported.

"It's going to be shocking to some. It certainly is really disturbing to see that. But that's what's going to happen before it turns around," he said. "So just buckle down, continue to mitigate, continue to do the physical separation, because we've got to get through this week that's coming up because it is going to be a bad week."

A similar warning was sounded by Surgeon General Jerome Adams Sunday, who said that the upcoming week “is going to be our Pearl Harbor moment, it's going to be our 9/11 moment, it's going to be the hardest moment for many Americans in their entire lives."

Like Fauci, Adams requested everyone to do their part in order to flatten the curve and get over to the other side of this crisis.

As of Sunday afternoon, the number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. stood at 333,173 and 9,536 had died because of it. In addition to this unimaginable toll, there were horrifying reports that the U.S. was unintentionally undercounting the deaths caused by COVID-19. Experts have anticipated that the virus could end up killing more than 100,000 Americans.

According to Fauci, the death toll will continue to lag behind a curbing of confirmed cases for a week or two as there will be tail off deaths from the previous cases.

“So even though you're getting really an improvement in that the number of new cases is starting to flatten, the deaths will lag by one or two weeks or more. So we need to be prepared that even though it's clear that mitigation is working, we're still going to see that tail-off of deaths,” Fauci said on 'Face the Nation.'

He also added that it was unlikely that COVID-19 would be completely eradicated and the disease may become seasonal in nature, stressing on the importance to stay prepared if such a thing happens in the future.

“And that's the reason why we're pushing so hard in getting our preparedness much better than it was, but importantly, pushing on the vaccine and getting clinical trials for therapeutic interventions so that hopefully, if we do see that resurgence, we will have interventions that we did not have at the beginning of the situation we're in right now,” he said.