Coronavirus ‘extraordinarily widespread’ as fight enters ‘new phase’ in US, Birx says

A “new phase” has opened in the U.S. fight against the “extraordinarily widespread” coronavirus, says Dr. Deborah Birx, head of a White House task force on the virus.

“What we are seeing today is different from March and April,” Birx said Sunday on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “It is extraordinarily widespread. It’s into the rural as (well as) urban areas.”

“It’s not super spreading individuals, it’s super spreading events and we need to stop those,” Birx said, according to the network. “We definitely need to take more precautions.”

Also on Sunday, Nancy Pelosi said she lacks confidence in Birx, an appointee of President Donald Trump.

“I think the president is spreading disinformation about the virus and she is his appointee, so I don’t have confidence there,” said Pelosi, speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, echoing concerns she reportedly expressed Friday to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, ABC News reported.

More than 17.8 million cases of the COVID-19 virus have been confirmed worldwide with more than 685,000 deaths as of Sunday, August 2, according to Johns Hopkins University. The United States has more than 4.6 million confirmed cases with more than 154,000 deaths.

The World Health Organization has declared coronavirus a global pandemic. In the United States, Trump has declared a national emergency.

This story was originally published August 2, 2020 at 8:48 AM with the headline "Coronavirus ‘extraordinarily widespread’ as fight enters ‘new phase’ in US, Birx says."