Tom Bossert, a former homeland security adviser to President Trump, on Monday said coronavirus testing is to the point where the U.S. should see a summer of “low cases” but that people should be steeling for potential flare-ups in the coming months as well.
Mr. Bossert said testing is a problem in that “we don’t have enough of it,” but he said the “testing standard” has improved.
“So now anybody who wants a test or would even not feel sick should be able to get that test before they go into certain areas,” he said. “We don’t have enough of them yet — we don’t have enough for this surveillance effect to take place — but I think we’re going to see it result in a summer of low cases and then a fall of a return.”
Mr. Bossert said the country needs to plan to “toggle” between “mitigation and suppression.”
“So we’re heading out of the suppression phase now, the one that’s more effective, and we’re accepting some community transmission as a result of this crushing blow to our economy,” he said on ABC’s “Good Morning America.”
Virtually all U.S. states are in the process of relaxing shutdown orders and restrictions that were adopted in recent months to try to slow the spread of the virus.
Mr. Bossert pointed out that many people are returning to work in high-risk environments such as meat-packing plants and nursing homes.
“They need to be tested as they come into work every day or every other day so that we can start monitoring throughout the summer for when we return into a need for episodic suppression,” he said.
There are now more than 1.4 million positive cases in the U.S. and more than 89,000 deaths, according to the Johns Hopkins University coronavirus tracker.
• David Sherfinski can be reached at dsherfinski@washingtontimes.com.
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