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19:51 GMT
WASHINGTON, April 3 (KUNA) -- The Covid-19 pandemic in the US is going to "get worse, much worse, before it gets better," director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases Dr. Anthony Fauci cautioned on Friday.
But social distancing is working to mitigate the spread of the virus, the top expert said this morning in an interview with "Fox and Friends" program on Fox News network.
"There's no doubt in my mind or anyone who knows anything about this, that the mitigation activities, the physical separation that we're doing clearly is having a positive impact," he said.
The US military will convert three temporary medical facilities in New York, New Orleans, and Dallas into facilities capable of treating patients with the coronavirus, the Pentagon said in a statement today.
"At the request of FEMA (Federal Emergency Management Agency), the Department of Defense will expand its medical support to include Covid-19 positive patients at the Javits Federal Medical Station (FMS) in New York City, the Morial FMS in New Orleans, Louisiana, and the Kay Bailey Hutchinson FMS in Dallas, Texas," according to the statement.
The number of known coronavirus cases in the District, Maryland and Virginia stands at 5,431 on Friday, with 2,759 cases in Maryland, 2,015 in Virginia and 657 in the District. The total of virus-driven deaths was 42 in Virginia, 36 in Maryland and 12 in the District, for a total of 90 fatalities in the region.
The US health authorities have confirmed 245,658 coronavirus cases and 6,069 deaths so far, according to CNN updates. (end)
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