Fauci says COVID-19 cases need to fall below 10,000 per day for a 'degree of normality,' as daily cases reach 85,000

Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

Susan Walsh-Pool/Getty Images

• US daily COVID-19 cases need to fall below 10,000 to get "a degree of normality," Dr. Fauci said. 
• The US recorded more than 80,000 cases per day over the past week, Johns Hopkins data shows.
• Fauci said high case numbers were "predictable" when 60 million Americans remained unvaccinated.

For the US to get back to "a degree of normality" the number of new daily COVID-19 infections must drop by at least 70,000, Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical advisor, has warned.

Fauci told CNBC on Tuesday that if new daily cases fall "well below 10,000, I think that would be a level that I think would be acceptable to us to get back to a degree of normality."

The US recorded about 85,000 cases per day on average in the week to Wednesday, Johns Hopkins University data shows.  The number of new US daily infections hasn't dipped below 10,000 since March 2020, according to Oxford University's Our World in Data.

Fauci said that case numbers leveling above 80,000 showed the country had "really bad control" over the pandemic, per CNBC. The US could be "in for some trouble" heading into winter if people didn't take precautions, he said.

Fauci told CNBC that cases might need to fall as low as 3,300 before the US gets control of the virus. He cautioned that his figures were estimates, not "definitive statements."

In a separate interview on Monday, Fauci told "The News with Shepard Smith" that getting to 80,000 cases per day was "predictable" when about 60 million Americans eligible for a COVID-19 shot remained unvaccinated. "And those eligible to be boosted, go get boosted," Fauci added, citing data from Israel that suggested boosters reduce the risk of severe COVID-19. 

Fauci urged people to get vaccinated, have a booster when eligible, and wear a mask indoors when they don't know if others are vaccinated.  But there's no reason not to avoid "a typical" Christmas or Thanksgiving with close friends if you're all vaccinated, he said.  

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