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Fauci says he expects no new U.S. lockdowns

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President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci said on ABC's "This Week" that he does not expect the United States will return to lockdowns, despite the growing risks of COVID-19 infections posed by the Delta variant.

FAUCI ON JULY 30: "I don't see that at all happening..."

Fauci's comments on Sunday follow a recent interview with Reuters, during which the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said he did not see there being a nationwide vaccine mandate either, but hoped that full FDA approval for COVID-19 vaccines would come this month and spur more Americans to get shots to slow a rising infection rate.

FAUCI ON JULY 30: "It's going up [the infection rate]. How far up it goes is going to depend on how we as a society address it. The more people you get vaccinated, the less likely it's going to go up even more."

Although Fauci did not think the U.S. will need to shut down again as it did last year, he warned on ABC that "things are going to get worse" as the Delta variant continues to spread.

According to a Reuters analysis, the average number of new U.S. cases reported each day has nearly doubled in the past 10 days and the number of hospitalized patients in many states is surging.

Florida has one of the worst outbreaks in the nation, based on new cases per capita. It has reported more than 110,000 new cases in the past week, a 50% increase from the week prior.