COVID-19 cases spike in several states as push to reopen continues
Is this something to worry about? Fox News contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier explains.
Fox News medical contributor Dr. Nicole Saphier told "Your World." Thursday that while the uptick in the number of coronavirus cases in several states does not warrant another shutdown, the "percent positive" rates and hospital availability should be monitored with a "close eye."
"There are some of these states ... Arizona, Arkansas, Texas, that are seeing an increase in their percent positives of those being tested, but that does not mean that it’s time to shut things down again," Saphier said.
"It just means we need to keep a close eye on those percent positives, a close eye on hospital and ICU availabilities, while continuing some level of social distancing and good hand hygiene."
US CORONAVIRUS CASES SURPASS 2M
The number of confirmed coronavirus cases in the U.S. passed the 2 million mark Wednesday, with infection rates in many areas appearing to spike.
The U.S. has seen a 36.5 percent increase in daily cases in recent days amid street protests and states reopening their economies, a stark contrast to other countries with the most COVID-19 infections to date, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) obtained by Yahoo News.
Saphier, who attributed the sudden spike to Memorial Day gatherings, told host Neil Cavuto that the impact of the protests on percent positive rates will be known within the next "two weeks."
CORONAVIRUS IN THE US: STATE-BY-STATE BREAKDOWN
"I am curious to see what happens in the next couple of weeks, because there tends to be a one to two-week lag to see the percent positive increase with all of the protests and mass gatherings that are occurring right now," she explained.
"I would say that if in the next two weeks the cases continue to level off or don’t drastically spike, then I think that the market should be much more comfortable that things are really on the right trajectory."
Fox News' David Aaro contributed to this report.
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