Members of the Coronavirus Task Force, charged with leading the U.S. response to the coronavirus pandemic, are holding a briefing Monday at 5 p.m. as the country heads into what President Trump and other White House officials warn will be a tough and painful week.
The death toll from the coronavirus in the U.S. is nearing 10,000 and experts believe the number of people dying from COVID-19, the disease caused by the novel coronavirus, will continue to rise even as the number of new cases begins to stabilize in certain areas.
How to watch the Coronavirus Task Force briefing
Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, warned Sunday in an interview with “Face the Nation” that the coming week is going to be “bad” and said that even as the mitigation measures put in place begin to work, the nation hasn’t yet reached the peak in the death toll.
Fauci also rejected the idea that the U.S. has the coronavirus outbreak under control.
“That would be a false statement,” he said. “We are struggling to get it under control, and that’s the issue that’s at hand right now.”
Mr. Trump continued to push the use of the anti-malarial drug hydroxychloroquine on Sunday, telling reporters it would be a “shame” if the drug is found to work and not used in U.S. hospitals. But earlier Sunday, Fauci told “Face the Nation” that “the data are really just at best suggestive.’
“In terms of science, I don’t think we could definitively say it works,” he said.
