"It is likely that we will see a surge in the fall," Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and the chief medical advisor to the president, said in an interview with Bloomberg conducted last week. "I would think that we should expect that we are going to see some increase in cases as you get to the colder weather in the fall."
The BA.2, more commonly known as “stealth Omicron," now accounts for more than half of US COVID-19 cases, according to estimates by the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC). In mid-March, it accounted for about one-quarter of US cases.
But Fauci says he doesn't believe there will be a "very large increase proportionately in hospitalizations due to the background immunity, but I think we should expect that over the next few weeks we are going to see an uptick in cases.
"Hopefully there is enough background immunity so we don't wind up with a lot of hospitalizations.
"The best way to avoid that as we always said to get more people vaccinated, and if you're vaccinated, get boosted when your time comes up."
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