#CDC warns of second coronavirus wave as state lift lockdown

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Jay Butler, deputy director for infectious diseases at the Centers for Disease Control
AP

States may need to lock back down if coronavirus cases spike, the CDC is warning.

“If cases begin to go up again, particularly if they go up dramatically, it’s important to recognize that more mitigation efforts such as what were implemented back in March may be needed again,” Jay Butler, the agency’s deputy director for infectious diseases, told reporters Friday.

However, the second wave of lockdowns could be accomplished on a local, rather than state-wide level, Butler said.

“Right now, communities are experiencing different levels of transmission occurring, as they gradually ease up onto the community mitigation efforts and gradually reopen,” he said.

Fear of an infection resurgence — and new lockdowns — fueled a stock slump on Thursday after U.S. coronavirus cases rose last week after five weeks of declines.