Gottlieb doesn’t see the potential for COVID to shift to a spottier spread as good news. In his appearance on CBS’ Face the Nation, he said, “The concern is that if there is sort of a third wave, a third iteration, of the national epidemic, it could be more diffuse spread across a broader section of the Midwest, because cases are building in those parts of the country and that’s what’s concerning people right now.” On the plus side, the country has seen a drop in deaths and hospitalizations overall, which according to Gottlieb is “being driven by a decline in the Sun Belt where the coronavirus really was epidemic [during] the sort of second wave, if you will, of the epidemic.” As these cases decline, Gottlieb fears the rise of cases throughout the Midwest and West, where they seem to be “building up.“ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb RELATED: For more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter. If Gottlieb’s prediction is correct, and COVID shifts from concentrated outbreaks to more spread out cases, officials may have to adjust their approach to containing coronavirus. As fall approaches and we enter a new phase of the pandemic, our response to the virus will have to shift with the season. And to find out more about where COVID is on the rise, This State Now Has the Absolute Worst COVID Outbreak in the Country.
