COVID-19 pandemic is nowhere under control in the US, says Chief Medical Adviser Anthony Fauci

The COVID-19 pandemic is nowhere 'under control,' said Anthony Fauci, the Chief Medical Adviser to US President Joe Biden, while expressing concerns over the rising cases of coronavirus in the nation. 

He said, "Right now, we're still in pandemic mode, because we have 1,60,000 new infections a day. That's not even modestly good control," in an interview with AXIOS. The infectious disease expert reiterated that the only way out of the pandemic is vaccination. 

"In a country of our size, you can't be hanging around and having 100,000 infections a day. You've got to get well below 10,000 before you start feeling comfortable," Fauci said.

The US is reporting a daily average of fewer than 148,000 cases of coronavirus, as of September 9. The numbers have decreased by 5 percent over a period of two weeks. Meanwhile, hospitalisations from COVID have increased by one percent in the nation over the period and the daily average is now at 100,000, according to The Hill. 

The US has reported 40 million cases of COVID-19 since the outbreak of the virus, with over 4 million infections adding up in the past few weeks.

The increase in COVID cases comes as the US administration earlier this month announced that it is planning to provide booster shots of the Pfizer and Moderna COVID-19 vaccine as the Delta variant has become dominant in the nation and is wreaking havoc. The surge in Delta variant is driven by the low vaccination coverage in many communities across the US, according to the US's Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.