The Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is worried about a second coronavirus outbreak occurring this winter when the flu season is at its peak.
"We're going to have the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time," CDC Director Robert Redfield told the Washington Post.
Redfield is worried that our healthcare system cannot handle both the flu epidemic and a second wave of coronavirus infections at the same time.
"There's a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," he said. "And when I've said this to others, they kind of put their head back, they don't understand what I mean."
Redfield's comments come as some states are beginning to reopen non-essential businesses. He said that state and federal officials must use the summer months to prepare for a second wave. He stressed that even as people get back to work, they must maintain social distancing, while health officials must increase testing and contact tracing so they can prevent a small number of infections from quickly spreading.
As of Wednesday (April 22), there have been more than 825,000 confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States and more than 45,000 deaths.
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