Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Thursday communities likely will be taking additional mitigation steps amid surges in coronavirus numbers, but he doesn't think states will reinstate stay-at-home orders.
"The hotspots are in 3 percent of American counties," Azar said on Fox News' "America's Newsroom." "About 110 counties right now are the ones that we are focused on. We can get back to work, back to school, back to worship and more importantly, back to health care, if we act responsibly as individuals."
Most of the severe cases remain among older people with diabetes, obesity, or high blood pressure, said Azar, stressing that most of the country can return to normal activities while practicing social distancing and wearing masks.
However, he said he doesn't think it's useful to talk about there being a first or second wave of the virus.
"We have therapeutics we're working with, we have convalescent plasma, we have steroids, and we will keep bringing other products to market so we can keep reducing our fatality rate," said Azar. "Any death is too many. But we now have fatalities in the United States for over 16 days below 1,000 and a rate of fatality per million that puts us at the top tier of developed countries around the world in terms of the performance they are in protecting vulnerable people."
On Wednesday, the United States hit its all-time high for new daily coronavirus cases at 38,672. Overall, more than 2.38 million cases have been confirmed nationally, with the death toll at just over 120,000.
Florida, Texas, and California have been hit hard with new cases this week, with Florida hitting a new record of infections this week. In Texas, new COVID-19 cases reached the 5,000 mark in Texas for the first time, and hospitalizations have hit a new high.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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