COVID-19 NOW MORE WIDESPREAD IN U.S. - EXPERT

Dr. Deborah Birx on Sunday said the U.S. is in a new phase in its fight against the coronavirus pandemic, saying that the deadly virus is more widespread than when it first took hold in the U.S. earlier this year.

"What we are seeing today is different from March and April. It is extraordinarily widespread. It's into the rural as equal urban areas," Birx, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator, told CNN's Dana Bash on "State of the Union," according to a report from KCRA 3 News.

Birx stressed that Americans need to follow health recommendations, including wearing a mask and practicing social distancing.

"To everybody who lives in a rural area, you are not immune or protected from this virus," Birx said. "If you're in multi-generational households, and there's an outbreak in your rural area or in your city, you need to really consider wearing a mask at home, assuming that you're positive, if you have individuals in your households with comorbidities."

"This epidemic right now is different and it's more widespread and it's both rural and urban," she added.

On Sunday, Birx would not give a projection of how many deaths the U.S. would see by the end of year, but she said a death toll largely depends on southern and western states to maintain and accelerate their mitigation efforts. Those states have become hot spots for the virus.

"It's not super spreading individuals, it's super spreading events and we need to stop those. We definitely need to take more precautions," Birx told Bash.

The Latest Numbers

The U.S. has reported more deaths linked to coronavirus than anywhere else in the world and updated models show 20,000 more Americans could die in just the next three weeks.

The ensemble forecast, published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention projects more than 173,000 American deaths by Aug. 22.

More than 4.6 million cases of the virus and 154,700 deaths have been reported in the U.S., according to data from Johns Hopkins University.