Anthony Fauci, the chief COVID-19 advisor to the White House, warned that the United States may see an uptick in coronavirus cases “in the next couple of weeks”. The remarks indicate revived fears of the pandemic resurging as a subvariant of omicron has been discovered.

Fauci, who is also the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, cited examples from Europe, particularly the United Kingdom, and said that they are “starting to see a reversal and a resurgence of cases.” 

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“So even though our cases are continuing to come down, I would not be surprised if in the next couple of weeks … that we might we’ll see an increase in cases”, Fauci said. 

However, a surge in COVID infections may not result in widespread restrictions like previous waves in the United States, according to reports from Bloomberg quoting Fauci.

BA. 2., a subvariant of the omicron strain of COVID, has been behind 23.1% of the new cases in the United States recently, according to estimates from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The federal health body has also noted that BA.2. maybe 30% – 80% more infectious than the original strain. 

After a massive surge caused by the omicron variant in the United States, hospitalisation rates linked to the virus have also been falling dramatically, federal data shows. However, the daily dips being observed in the country have been steadily shrinking. 

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Dr Rochelle Walensky, the director of the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, shared similar concerns. She said in a statement last week that mask mandates are “certainly possible” if the BA.2 variant surges.

“We want to make sure that people have an opportunity to relax their mitigation strategies when things are good, as they are right now,” Walensky said while speaking at the Bipartisan Policy Center.