US warned of 'potential fourth surge' of Covid-19
The spread of highly contagious coronavirus variants is threatening to fuel a "potential fourth surge of cases" in the US, a high health official has warned.
The head of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said she was concerned by recent Covid-19 data.
She said about 70,000 new instances every day were recorded last week, "an extremely high number".
There were nearly 2,000 deaths a day in the same period, she said.
"Please hear me clearly: As of this level of circumstances, with variations spreading, we stand to totally lose the hard-earned floor we have gained," Dr Rochelle Walensky, director of the CDC, said on Monday. "These variations are a very real threat to your people and our improvement."
There are various versions, or variants, of Covid-19 circulating, but health experts are particularly concerned about a few.
These include variants first detected in UK, South Africa and Brazil that seem to be more contagious.
The CDC has predicted the highly contagious B.1.1.7 variant first found in the UK can be the dominant strain in the US this month.
With all this, Dr Walensky said she was "really worried" about accounts of US says "rolling back the precise public health measures we have recommended to protect people from Covid-19".
"We have the ability to stop a potential 4th surge of conditions in this country. Please stay strong in your conviction," she said.
In total, the US has recorded more than 28 million infections and 500,000 deaths related to Covid-19, according to World Health Business (WHO) data.
