Anthony Fauci: Widespread lockdowns no longer needed in U.S.

Dr. Anthony Fauci said in an interview Thursday that the U.S. does not need any kind of return to widespread lockdowns to contain the coronavirus.

The longtime head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases told Agence France-Presse that officials are aware that the daily-infection numbers have remained flat as more states open up.

But public-health officials will handle local outbreaks in ways other than the mass, open-ended lockdowns of March and April.

“I don’t think we’re going to be talking about going back to lockdown,” he said. “I think we’re going to be talking about trying to better control those areas of the country that seem to be having a surge of cases.”

Mr. Fauci told the French news agency that as the U.S. returns to normal, flare-ups might happen, but the approach to matters such as school reopenings will be localized.

“Counties where there are certainly no cases at all, there’s no problem with the schools opening,” he said.

“There are other parts where there’s a modest amount of infection (where) you may delay school openings,” he explained. “There are other parts of the country where there’s minimum infection, where you want to make some modification of the process, namely: alternate days, morning versus afternoon, seating people apart from each other wearing masks.”