Anthony Fauci Anthony FauciOvernight Health Care: US coronavirus deaths hit 200,000 | Ginsburg's death puts future of ObamaCare at risk | Federal panel delays vote on initial COVID-19 vaccine distribution White House seeks to change subject from 200K COVID-19 deaths Putin calls on UN to strengthen World Health Organization MORE, the nation’s leading infectious disease expert, reportedly said Wednesday that a second wave of the coronavirus is "inevitable" later this year.

"If by that time we have put into place all of the countermeasures that you need to address this, we should do reasonably well," Fauci told CNN in an interview. "If we don't do that successfully, we could be in for a bad fall and a bad winter."

The head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases said that if states ease restrictions too quickly, the country could see a surge that would "get us right back in the same boat that we were a few weeks ago,” adding that widespread testing is needed to avoid such a path.

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"The truth is that we're going in the right direction," he said. "But we need to continue to partner in a very active collaborative way with the states, we need to help them the same way they need to do the execution."

Fauci also called a second wave of the virus unavoidable on NBC News and Fox News on Tuesday.

"It’s inevitable that the coronavirus will return next season. ... When it does, how we handle it, will determine our fate,” Fauci told NBC.

As of Wednesday morning, more than 1 million Americans have tested positive for the coronavirus, and at least 58,355 have died.