Deborah Birx, United States President Donald Trump’s top medical advisor, has cautioned that the country is entering a new phase in its battle against the coronavirus pandemic, CNN reported.

In an interview with CNN, Birx said that the disease was “extraordinarily widespread” across the US and now poses a greater threat than at the time of the first outbreak of the virus.

“To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus,” said Dr Birx, a leading member of the White House’s coronavirus task force.

“This epidemic right now is different and it’s more widespread and it’s both rural and urban.”

She said that the coronavirus has reached rural areas while simultaneously affecting big cities.

She urged rural communities to sport a mask and adhere to social distancing guidelines as the coronavirus continues to expand in the States.

“As I travelled around the country, I saw all of America moving...If you have chosen to go on vacation into a hot spot, you really need to come back and protect those with co-morbidities and assume you’re infected,” she said.

Meanwhile, US President Donald Trump has said America is doing “very well” in the fight against the Covid-19 pandemic, compared to other countries. He cited India and China saying that India is having a “tremendous problem” in containing the virus, and China is witnessing a “massive flare-up” in infections, as per media reports.

The US continues to remain the worst-affected country by the virus. According to a report by Johns Hopkins University, over 4.6 million infections and at least 154,834 deaths have been confirmed in the US.

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