U.S. health official Fauci says COVID-19 outbreak is 'serious situation'

FILE PHOTO: Dr Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute for Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies during a Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, U.S., June 30, 2020. Kevin Dietsch/Pool via REUTERS

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. health official Anthony Fauci said on Monday that the current state of the COVID-19 outbreak in the United States "is really not good" and a "serious situation that we have to address immediately."

The United States is still "knee-deep" in the first wave of the illnesses, having never gotten the case number as low as planned, Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases and a member of the White House coronavirus task force, said during a live internet interview with National Institutes of Health director Francis Collins.