US official clarifies on possible COVID outbreak in country: 'Second wave could be possible, not worse'

A US official on Wednesday (local time) clarified his previous comments made during an interview about a possible COVID-19 wave in the country next winter.

"The second wave could be more difficult, more complicated and not worse," Director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Robert Redfield said at the White House briefing on Wednesday.

"When I commented yesterday that there was a possibility of the fall/winter -- next fall and winter it could be more difficult, more complicated," he added.

On Tuesday, Redfield had said that COVID-19 in the US in next winter will be "much difficult", which the CDC Director now says was slightly misconstrued in the headline of The Washington Post.

"There is a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," Redfield had said in an interview with the daily.

He had said the US will have "the flu epidemic and the coronavirus epidemic at the same time."

COVID-19 has infected more than 2.6 million people around the world and the US is the hardest-hit country.

The US has reported more than 8,40,000 cases with over 46,000 fatalities, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.

-ANI

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