WASHINGTON (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 15th July, 2020) The young age of people testing positive for the novel coronavirus in southern US states, which are experiencing surges in cases, indicates that officials attempted to open up too early, National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases Director Anthony Fauci said.
"If you look at the age range of the individuals who are getting infected now as opposed to early on a few months ago, it's about a decade to a decade and a half younger," Fauci told an on-line forum sponsored by Georgetown University on Tuesday.
"It suggests a link between attempting to open" and subsequent images of young people congregating in bars and other crowded places with their faces uncovered, Fauci added.
The assessment, he said, applies to the states of California, Florida, Arizona and Texas, which are experiencing new cases at record rates in the range of 60,000 a day, about three times the level of 20,000 in May and early June, according to Fauci. The surge has prompted a reversal of some reopening measures in the four states.
The lower ages of the latest victims suggests that deaths are unlikely to match fatalities in places like New York and other northeastern states early in the pandemic, but that the challenge now is to convince young people that they can spread the disease even if odds of becoming seriously ill themselves is low.
