Fauci made the comments while speaking to students and staff virtually at the University of Melbourne in Australia where they're reopening after a four-month lockdown.
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But while they have flattened the curve there, Doctor Fauci says here in the US, our numbers are going in the wrong direction.
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Hospitals buckling again as COVID-19 cases surge across the country
He says if we have a vaccine and a significant number of people get vaccinated, we could see things slowly get back to normal in the spring or even into the following year.
But it also depends on what you consider normal.
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"If normal means you can get people into the theater without worrying about what we call congregate settings, superspreaders, if you could get restaurants to open at full capacity, sporting events with spectators, then I think that is going to be well into 2021 and perhaps beyond," Fauci said.
On Tuesday, there were 73,240 new COVID-19 cases identified in the U.S., according to a real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University. The latest daily tally is nearly 6,500 more than the previous day.
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