From [HERE] The Biden administration’s chief medical adviser said he didn’t believe the U.S. would return to lockdowns but warned that “things are going to get worse” as a more contagious variant of the coronavirus has led to a surge of new cases.

“We are looking, not I believe, to lockdown but we are looking to some pain and suffering in the future because we are seeing the cases go up,” Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said Sunday on ABC’s “This Week.” He added, “The solution to this is, get vaccinated.”

The latest statistics from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention show a 64.1% increase in Covid cases over the week ended July 30 compared with the previous week, or an average of 66,606 cases a day. The CDC reported a current seven-day average of 6,071 new admissions of hospital patients with Covid-19, a 44% increase over the average for the week of July 16-22. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky previously has said that more than 97% of Covid patients entering the hospital nationwide were unvaccinated.

As of July 26, the CDC had reported fewer than 1,000 Covid-related deaths among vaccinated individuals. More than 164 million people in the U.S. have been fully vaccinated.

Dr. Fauci and other top medical officials pleaded on several Sunday talk shows for Americans to follow the newest government guidelines—that everyone in areas with high Covid-19 infection rates wear a mask, regardless of vaccination status. They also urged the nearly 100 million eligible Americans who hadn’t received a vaccine to get one.