The Centers for Disease Control and the White House are working with state and local authorities to try to mitigate the spread of coronavirus across the United States, while not second-guessing decisions to close colleges and schools out of caution about the disease, Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar said Wednesday.
"We are going to see more of these cases," Azar said on Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "We have been very clear from the outset, we will see more cases in the United States. There is literally no way that the United States, as the center of the global economy is immune from this."
Azar also rejected a report from Politico claiming that he and CMS chief Seema Verma have been feuding.
"I'm not going to waste any time talking about the palace intrigue crap that you see in Politico all the time," said Azar. " Administrator Verma and I are working hours, literally hours every single day together on the coronavirus response, hours together. Constructively, productively, as frankly we have over the last four years."
Meanwhile, at the federal level, work is still going on to slow traffic into the United States and to work with places where there have been high numbers of cases reported, including Washington, New York, Florida, California, and Massachusetts, said Azar.
Numerous colleges are switching to online classes, and Azar said that while the government won't question the decision, it's important to remember that people under the age of 30 if they are otherwise healthy, suffer only mild to moderate symptoms from the disease.
"Of course, they can bring it home to the elderly or the medically fragile," said Azar. "In terms of schools, it's very much a localized determination and consideration."
He also insisted that the shortage of coronavirus tests is over, commenting that now there is a "surplus" available.
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