Azar: COVID-19 has yet to surge in recently opened states

WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW:

• Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said on Sunday that authorities have yet to determine the surge of COVID-19 cases in states that have recently reopened.
• Azar said it is up to the local governments on how to execute their reopening plans.
• Meanwhile, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said that it would be impossible to know the projected path of the coronavirus without mass testing.

Health and Human Services Secretary (HHS) Alex Azar said on Sunday that authorities have yet to determine the spike of COVID-19 cases in states that reopened recently as the virus has up to 14-day incubation period.

“We are seeing that in places that are opening, we’re not seeing this spike in cases,” Azar said on CNN’s State of the Union program. “We still see spikes in some areas that are, in fact, closed.”

According to Reuters, Azar said it would take time to verify the new cases throughout the country.

“It’s still early days,” the health secretary noted during an interview with CBS’ Face the Nation.

Azar said that monitoring efforts in recently opened include surveillance of flu-like symptoms and other hospital admissions data. He also added that it is vital to have asymptomatic individuals tested.         

Almost all states in the US have started reopening in their own ways. However, only 14 have met federal guidelines for lifting measures as efforts to mitigate the virus based on the Reuter’s report. Azar said it would also take time to know the recent COVID-19 cases in states such as Georgia and Florida which started reopening within the past month.

The HHS top official placed the responsibility on local government leaders on the management of their reopening plans.

“These are very localized determinations. There should not be a one size fits all to reopening but reopen we must because it’s not health versus the economy. It’s health versus healthy,” Azar told Reuters.

Meanwhile, according to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, it would be impossible to know the projected path of the coronavirus without mass testing.

“We have no idea the size of this challenge to our country because we have not sufficiently tested,” Pelosi told CBS’ Face the Nation.

Source: Fox News