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In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, Fox News contributor Dr. Mehmet Oz said on Monday that the surge of cases in New York City is comparable to a “war zone.”
“We’ve got chapels filled with bodies because there’s overflow,” Oz told “Fox & Friends.”
“This is just a virus attacking a city aggressively,” Oz said, adding that he hopes the rest of the country is paying attention to the situation and taking the necessary precautions.
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Oz’s comments came after President Trump declared that “the peak in death rate” in the coronavirus pandemic “is likely to hit in two weeks,” and said the federal government will be extending its social-distancing guidelines through April 30.
In response to a question at the briefing, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, reiterated his estimate from earlier in the day that it remained possible that 100,000 to 200,000 people could die in the United States.
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Oz said that people did not appreciate how significant the coronavirus outbreak was following the large gathering of people attending Mardi Gras in New Orleans.
“We need to make sure we suffocate this virus,” Oz said. The only way we do that is to do the aggressive measures we’re looking at. I think in two weeks, people will look around and say ‘OK, we’re past the worst of it, the numbers are clearly headed in the right direction.’”
He said an important step for hospital systems is obtaining a test that can produce a result in 24 hours or less, rather than waiting a week or more in some cases.
Fox News’ Gregg Re contributed to this report.
