Fauci warns U.S. COVID-19 cases could "go up to 100,000 per day"

Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, prepares to testify before the House Energy and Commerce Committee on Oversight of the Trump Administration's Response to the COVID-19 Pandemic in Washington, D.C., the United States, on June 23, 2020. (Sarah Silbiger/Pool via Xinhua)

"We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. And so I am very concerned," said Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government's top infectious-diseases expert.

WASHINGTON, June 30 (Xinhua) -- Anthony Fauci, the U.S. government's top infectious-diseases expert, warned Tuesday that COVID-19 cases in the United States could go up to 100,000 per day if the current trend "does not turn around."

In a Senate committee hearing, Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said that the country is "going in the wrong direction" as the number of COVID-19 cases increases across the nation.

"We are now having 40-plus thousand new cases a day. I would not be surprised if we go up to 100,000 a day if this does not turn around. And so I am very concerned," he said.

Fauci stressed that he could not make an estimation on deaths as those would need to be modeled.

The outbreaks in various parts of the country put "the entire country at risk" and "clearly we don't have this under control," Fauci added.

More than 2.6 million COVID-19 cases have been reported in the United States with the fatalities surpassing 126,000 as of Tuesday afternoon, according to a tally by Johns Hopkins University.