Post-seasonal Covid surge likely: health expert

The worst of the coronavirus pandemic is yet to come, said Dr Anthony Fauci, top infectious disease expert and director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases in the US, on Sunday, as per media reports.

In an interview with CNN’s State of the Union show, Dr Fauci was asked to share his views on President-elect Joe Biden’s recent statement about the pandemic — “the darkest days in the battle against Covid-19 are ahead of us.”

Dr Fauci replied: “I do. We very well might see a post-seasonal — in the sense of Christmas, New Year’s — surge.”

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Promoting trust in vaccination

This comes as Dr Fauci was administered with Moderna Inc’s Covid-19 vaccine. This was carried out in order to gain public trust in the vaccine.

The 80-year-old immunologist said that he was fine after receiving the first dose of the vaccine. He added that he only felt an ache in his arm that lasted around 24 hours. “Then it went away and completely, other than that I felt no other deleterious type of effects,” he said.

Covid-19 cases in US 8 times higher than reported: CDC

Meanwhile, the US has recorded around 3,32,000 Covid-19 related deaths. According to predictions from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, around 1,93,000 people could lose their lives over the next two months in the US.