Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, on Wednesday said that determining who is immune to the coronavirus is crucial because the virus is likely to rear its head again next year.
“This is going to be the critical question we will answer between now and next year, when it’s very likely that we’re going to have another wrestling match with this virus as it comes back,” Dr. Redfield said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
He said ramping up antibody testing is key to try to determine how many asymptomatic people spread the virus, notably in health care settings.
Dr. Redfield said determining immunity in health care workers will be key for potentially alternative health care delivery strategies, “particularly as the cases come back next fall.”
“So that’s ongoing,” he said. “I think these health care workers are extraordinary, and I think we will show that a significant percentage of health care workers in high-risk areas did, in fact, get infected in the line of their work.”
The CDC reported on Tuesday that more than 9,000 health care workers in the U.S. tested positive for the coronavirus over a two-month period ending April 9.
President Trump is preparing to unveil formal guidance to states to help them determine whether to start reopening businesses and schools in the coming weeks.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom on Tuesday said one benchmark his state has to hit before thinking about dialing back coronavirus-related restrictions is determining how to reinstitute the restrictions if infections and cases start to jump again.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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