US to See Drop in COVID-19 Deaths This Winter, Fauci Says

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Top US infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci expects the number of coronavirus fatalities to go down during the cold season.

"I strongly suspect that you're going to start seeing the deaths go down similar to the hospitalisations; how quickly they go down and how thoroughly they go down is going to depend a lot on a number of circumstances, which will be influenced by things like the colder weather, people doing things indoors, how well they go by the CDC [Centres for Disease Control and Prevention] guidelines", Fauci said in an interview with Greta Van Susteren, as quoted by The Hill.

Fauci, who is the chief medical adviser to the US president, advised people to wear masks during outside gatherings regardless of whether an individual is vaccinated or not, since there are communities with a high COVID-19 prevalence.

"Fortunately, right now, over the last few weeks, we've seen a turnaround in the slope in going down in both cases and hospitalisations. Deaths are still up, but it's really flattening, so it's a lagging indicator", Fauci said in the interview to be aired on Sunday.

In September, the infectious disease expert warned that the Delta variant remains of primary concern in the US, having increased the share of new cases in the United States to over 98 percent, from 13.5 percent in June.

The United States has the highest total number of confirmed coronavirus cases and the greatest COVID-19 death toll of all the countries in the world. According to the latest data from Johns Hopkins University, the US has registered over 44.3 million cases since the start of the pandemic and the number of fatalities has surpassed 712,000.

At the start of this month, when the total COVID-19 death toll in the United States surpassed 700,000, US President Joe Biden said the fact that the US death toll from the coronavirus infection is increasing means that more people need to get vaccinated in the country.