CDC director: ‘We can’t be complacent’ amid drop in COVID-19 cases

Rochelle Walensky, the director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), said on Sunday that she was “encouraged” by dropping COVID-19 cases across the country but warned “we can’t be complacent.”

Appearing on “Fox News Sunday,” Walensky gave her assessment of the current state of the pandemic to host Chris Wallace, who noted that the U.S. is still seeing over 70,000 COVID-19 cases a day but that cases have seen a decrease compared to the prior month that saw a surge due to the delta variant.

“So I think the numbers actually speak for themselves. You’re absolutely right cases are down they’re down more than 50 percent from where they were in September, but we can’t get complacent yet,” Walensky said.

Wallace asked Walensky to address the possibility of a fifth wave of coronavirus cases, noting that they may rise again as temperatures drop and people spend more time indoors.

“Well I’m encouraged by numbers coming down right now, but I have learned that we can’t be complacent and that we need to be humble and that the virus tends to find places that are under vaccinated,” said the CDC director. “So as our case numbers come down, we need to continue to do the hard work of getting more and more people vaccinated to prevent exactly what you described.”

When asked about upcoming holidays, Walensky encouraged kids to go trick-or-treating this year, noting that they should be safe despite being unvaccianted as their activities would mostly take place outdoors. However, she advised that they avoid large gatherings since they remain unvaccinated.