The United States has been warned a potential second outbreak of SARS-CoV-2 could be even more brutal than the situation Americans are currently facing.
The North America superpower has recorded 817,000 cases of the virus, which causes the deadly COVID-19 illness. That's about four times the number of cases in Spain, which has the second-most. The US has also reported the most deaths, with 45,000.
However, the director of the US' Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) says a potential outbreak during the northern hemisphere's winter could be even more harmful.
"There's a possibility that the assault of the virus on our nation next winter will actually be even more difficult than the one we just went through," Robert Redfield told The Washington Post.
He said this would be because health systems would have to deal with the COVID-19 epidemic as well as a likely high number of flu cases. According to the CDC, between October 2019 and April 4, 2020, there were between 24,000 and 62,000 flu deaths, and between 410,000 and 740,000 hospitalisations from the illness. It says it provides an estimated range as "influenza surveillance does not capture all cases of flu".
The CDC director said the United States was lucky the COVID-19 virus first arrived in the country near the end of the regular flu season. The nation initially had issues in ramping up testing, identifying where the virus was taking hold, and ensuring health professionals had adequate personal protective equipment.
SARS-CoV-2 is understood to be more dangerous than the flu as its reproductive number - meaning the number of people a positive case may infect - is higher than that of influenza. The mortality rate of COVID-19 also appears to be higher, though more time will be needed to fully pin it down.
According to CNN, the White House coronavirus task force coordinator Dr Deborah Birx was asked about Redfield's comments and said: "I don't know if it will be worse, I think this has been pretty bad."
"When you see what happened in New York, that was very bad. I believe that we'll have early warning signals both from our surveillance that we've been talking about in these vulnerable populations. We're going to continue that surveillance from now all the way through to be able to give us that early warning signal."
Under the pressure of COVID-19, hospitals in New York and other centres have become overcrowded. Bodies of the virus' victims have had to be kept in refrigerated trucks.
Redfield said officials would be doing as much preparation as they could for the two epidemics to possibly coincide, including by getting people to have the flu shot. He said getting the jab "may allow there to be a hospital bed available for your mother or grandmother that may get coronavirus".
He also urged Americans to follow guidance being provided to keep them safe. The Trump administration has already released phased plans on how the country will reopen.
Currently, many states are asking residents to stay at home and practise physical-distancing - something rejected by some Americans who have flocked to congregations to protest the instructions. Redfield told The Washington Post that wasn't helpful.
A vaccine for COVID-19 isn't expected to be developed until around the middle of next year.
Worldwide, there are 2.5 million cases of the virus, with 177,000 people having died.
