Washington: Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, said on Sunday that the U.S. is “in a new phase” of battling against the coronavirus pandemic and urged Americans to wear masks and follow social distancing guidelines.
Birx said during an interview on CNN, “What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread … it’s more widespread and it’s both rural and urban” .
“To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus,” Birx said. “And that is why we keep saying, no matter where you live in America, you need to wear a mask and socially distance, do the personal hygiene pieces.”
The U.S. has more than 4.6 million coronavirus cases and at least 154,449 deaths, the most of any country, according to data from the Johns Hopkins University.
Asked about former FDA Commissioner Scott Gottlieb’s warning that the country could experience 300,000 deaths by the end of 2020, Birx responded, “Anything is possible” but declined to provide details on current projections.
