The current decree requires that 48 percent of all Americans self-quarantine upon arrival to NY, according to a USA Today study. This troubling increase is mostly concentrated in the South and West, where the situation is moving towards critical. The recent rise in unemployment may have swayed voters to expand insurance coverage, although opponents argue that the state's stretched budget can not afford it. Thirty-six states report an increase in new coronavirus cases compared to last week. It also lowered the death rate for patients who require oxygen (but are not yet on a ventilator) by one-fifth, the Times reported.

Fauci's remarks, made during an appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions Committee, came as the number of new cases in some Southern and Southwestern states has soared.

The hike in coronavirus cases is happening especially in southern and western states.

Los Angeles, the second-largest U.S. city, has become a new epicentre in the pandemic as coronavirus cases and hospitalisations surge there despite California Governor Gavin Newsom's orders requiring bars to close and residents to wear masks in almost all public spaces.

Infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci, a leading member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force, said the United States was headed in the "wrong direction" on the pandemic and demanded that Americans wear masks and avoid crowds after lax behavior propelled new outbreaks.

Asked to forecast the outcome of recent surges in some states, Fauci said he couldn't make an accurate prediction, but believed it will be "very disturbing".

Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden said he will not be holding campaign rallies because of the pandemic

Currently, the daily rise in infections in the U.S. is about 40,000, but that could more than double, according to the virologist.

Fauci said about half of the new nationwide COVID-19 cases are coming from four states: California, Texas, Florida and Arizona. "I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around and - so I'm very concerned". "And so I am very involved ... it could get quite awful". Deaths are also rising. The country has suffered over 127,000 deaths overall during the pandemic, as of Tuesday evening.

Businesses are shutting down, Dr. Fauci's warning of an alarming rise in cases, and the National Basketball Association playoffs are just weeks away.

The EU's largest economy was recently forced to move back on some of its easing of restrictions as localised outbreaks emerged, with the state of North Rhine-Westphalia having to extend a lockdown on a district hit hard by a slaughterhouse cluster. "And so I am very concerned". More than 100 coronavirus cases were linked to a popular college town bar that reopened in Michigan, McClatchy News reported. "All I hear, Dr. Fauci, is, "We can't do this, we can't do that". He batted for a "substantial investment" in contact tracing for health experts to get a better grip on the disease.

Graffiti depicting US President Trump, right, and China's President Xi Jinping kissing each other with face masks, displayed at a wall in Berlin, Germany. And he says you have to think of reopening as this dial which you adjust depending on the risk in the community.

Among the other health experts who attended the hearing were CDC Director Robert Redfield, FDA Director Stephen Hahn and Assistant Secretary for Health Adm. Brett Giroir.