WASHINGTON • The United States' top infectious disease expert has said the country could face a "problematic" autumn and winter in the fight against the coronavirus.
The comments by Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, came as the US surpassed the grim milestone of over seven million total infections.
"We're afraid things could actually get worse," Dr Fauci said in an interview with Irish public broadcaster RTE.
"We've got to get our baseline down; we've got to get control of this."
But he also struck an optimistic note, saying the pandemic will end, and it should be clear by the end of the year whether a safe vaccine has been developed.
Meanwhile, in neighbouring Canada, the country's two most populous provinces on Friday moved to clamp down further on social gatherings, in a bid to slow a second wave of coronavirus infections that now total more than 150,000 nationwide.
Ontario ordered the closure of bars and restaurants from midnight to 5am, except for takeouts and deliveries, and said strip clubs would have to shut down from yesterday.
Premier Doug Ford, whose government has already slashed the size of permitted gatherings indoors and outdoors, repeated his concerns that the majority of new cases were people under 40.
"I can tell you I don't see seniors going into nightclubs too often," he told a daily briefing.
Health officials in Canada have been making increasingly gloomy comments in recent days.
Dr Theresa Tam, the chief public health officer, told reporters on Friday that some local authorities could be overwhelmed unless the wave was curbed.
Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said at the same event: "We now have active cases in every single province.
"What we do now will be critical for the weeks and months to come."
In Quebec, Health Minister Christian Dube urged residents to cut down on social interactions.
"We're asking you to make a special effort for the next 28 days," he told a news conference, saying the government did not want to close bars because people might then attend private parties that are harder to control.
Ontario and Quebec together account for 79 per cent of the 150,456 cases reported in Canada so far and 93 per cent of the 9,255 deaths.
Mr Trudeau said Canada has signed a deal with AstraZeneca to buy up to 20 million doses of its Covid-19 vaccine candidate.
It is among the leading candidates in the global race for a vaccine.
BLOOMBERG, REUTERS
