The outbreak of the coronavirus COVID 19 has not yet peaked, and national leaders will continue to respond in a way which is “proportionate,” said Dr Anthony Fauci, a leading immunologist and a member of the federal coronavirus task force.

The virus has infected more than 135,000 people and has killed more than 4,900 worldwide. In the United States, there are 1,629 sickened and 41 deaths, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“Well, it’s certainly going to get worse before it gets better. And the kinds of mitigation strategies, containment and mitigations that you are talking about, is to do that kind of physical separation of people, which is one of the very effective ways that you can really mitigate the spread of the virus,” Fauci said Friday during a television interview. “If you look at the pattern of viruses, particularly these types of viruses, and even look at what’s gone on in China and in Italy and in South Korea, you go along like this, the way we were, and then you have a big spike that goes way up, and then after a while, after much disease and suffering and death, it comes back down again.

“The purpose of the mitigation is to get that peak and to blunt it so it’s a bit of a hill as opposed to a mountain. We’re at a critical point now, more in some regions of the country than in others, but in general, the kinds of things that are going on will hopefully make that blunting of that peak so that we can save a lot of lives and illness,” he added.

Asked if Americans can expect a “gradual shutdown” of the nation, the way that they have seen other countries respond, Fauci replied, “You know, it’s very difficult to predict, Cecilia. I’m not sure we’re going to get to that. I think that would be really rather dramatic, but I can tell you that all things are on the table. We just have to respond as things evolve over the days and the weeks.”

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