Lindsey Graham expects recurrence of coronavirus cases in the fall
U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham said the coronavirus pandemic will likely surge in the fall with a rise in new cases.
The South Carolina Republican made the prediction at a news conference Sunday at Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport, when 1.3 million masks were delivered from China to be used in South Carolina hospitals.
Graham bemoaned the fact that the U.S. had to get help from China for the Personal Protective Equipment, or PPE.
“In the fall, if this comes back — and it probably will — we’re going to be much better prepared,” Graham said at the event also attended by fellow U.S. Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., and Gov. Henry McMaster, among others. “The medical supply chain is coming back to America.”
President Donald Trump has said there might not be a recurrence of COVID-19, saying, “it’s also possible it doesn’t come back at all.”
But Graham’s prediction is similar to warnings from Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases who is one of the leaders of the administration’s response to the health crisis.
“We will have coronavirus in the fall,” Fauci said at a White House coronavirus briefing last week. “I am convinced of that because of the degree of transmissibility that it has, the global nature. What happens with that will depend on how we’re able to contain it when it occurs.”
Robert Redfield, director of the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention, recently told the Washington Post it’s possible the potential recurrence will be “even more difficult than the one we just went through.” He also cautioned about the challenges of dealing with the coronavirus and a flu epidemic at the same time.
And Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York recently told MarketWatch, “if we’re not expecting a second wave or a mutation of this virus, then we have learned nothing.”
If there is lull in confirmed cases of the coronavirus, medical experts have said the U.S. should take advantage of that period to build up its stockpile of ventilators and other key medical supplies. On Sunday, Graham committed have those items manufactured in the U.S.
“We’re here celebrating a shipment of masks coming here from China, on a Boeing jet,” Graham said while stepping away from the microphone and surveying the audience. “Talk about a surreal moment. ... We don’t want to do this again. In the fall, we want the masks made in the United States. We don’t want to have to ever rely on China or anyone else for our basic health care needs.”
Graham added the coronavirus pandemic should be a wake-up call to the U.S., and it should be in control of the supply chain.
He went on to say McMaster has done a good job dealing with the challenges of the pandemic and trying to keep businesses open “in a responsible way.”
South Carolina has passed its peak dates for daily deaths (April 9) and hospital use (April 23) caused by the coronavirus, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. IHME projections are being used by the South Carolina Department of Health and Environmental Control in its COVID-19 evaluations.
On Sunday, 237 new cases of the coronavirus were reported in South Carolina, bringing the statewide total to 5,490 confirmed COVID-19 cases in all 46 counties, according to DHEC.
DHEC also announced that eight more people died after testing positive for the coronavirus, raising that total to 174. State health officials described 146 of the people as elderly, 28 patients were middle-aged.
There have been 45,271 combined negative tests at DHEC’s public health laboratory and at private labs.
DHEC is encouraging people to practice social distancing to help stop the spread of the virus. Social distancing means refraining from unnecessary interactions with sick people and staying away from large groups of people; it also calls for remaining at home unless it is absolutely necessary to go out.
As of Sunday morning, 2,912,421 people worldwide have been diagnosed with coronavirus and 203,534 people have died, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States leads the world with 939,249 people who have been diagnosed with the novel virus. In the U.S. 53,934 deaths have been reported, including 17,126 in New York City.
