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Fauci warns of ‘uptick’ in COVID-19 cases after Thanksgiving gatherings

Dr. Anthony Fauci on Sunday warned that Americans should brace themselves for a COVID-19 “surge superimposed” on the current one after many traveled for the Thanksgiving holiday.

“What we expect unfortunately as we go for the next few weeks into December is a surge superimposed into that surge that we’re already in,” Fauci told NBC anchor Chuck Todd on “Meet the Press.”

The Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases blamed the millions of travelers who ignored health experts’ pleas to stay home for the holiday.

“We have to be careful now because there almost certainly is going to be an uptick because of what’s happened with the travel,” Fauci told ABC anchor Martha Raddatz on “This Week.”

“We understand the importance of families getting together and it’s just something that we will have to deal with as we get into the colder weeks of the winter and as we approach the Christmas season.”

Fauci called on people who traveled over Thanksgiving to “understand the importance of trying to prevent further spread and further surge.”

“That may be when you go back to when you came from if it’s possible to quarantine yourself for a period of time or even get tested to make sure that you’re not bringing infection back to another place, be it another home or another family,” Fauci said.

Fellow White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx on Sunday said she’s “concerned” that the curves for daily new infections will mimic the one seen after Memorial Day weekend.

“We saw what happened post-Memorial Day. Now we are deeply worried about what could happen post-Thanksgiving because the number of cases 25,000 versus 180,000 a day,” Birx told CBS anchor Margaret Brennan on “Face the Nation.”

She warned that the impact will likely be worse due to current surges across the nation.

“If you look at the second wave going into the Memorial Day weekend, we had less than 25,000 cases a day, we had only 30,000 inpatients in the hospital and we had way less mortality, way under a thousand.”

“We’re entering this post-Thanksgiving with three, four and 10 times as much disease across the country so that’s what worries us the most.”