Some areas of the United States will soon see their health care systems overwhelmed, as coronavirus hospitalizations surge around the nation, Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday.
“In some areas, we are going to see the health care system overwhelmed,” Redfield said in an interview with Fox News.
But he said Americans are not defenseless against the virus, and can blunt the surge by practicing mitigation measures.
“This is why, again, the vigilance in the mitigation steps is so important to keep those health care systems from going over the top in terms of being able to maintain their resilience -- not just to serve people with Covid, but to serve (people) without Covid,” Redfield said.
He said definitively that safety precautions, such as wearing masks, work.
“Hope’s on the way with a vaccine,” Redfield said, adding that until then, “We still need to really be vigilant about these mitigation steps, and stop the debate about whether they work or not.”