All US states should have stay-at-home order: Dr. Fauci

By Vakkas Dogantekin

ANKARA (AA) - All American states should issue stay-at-home-order to stem the spread of the coronavirus, according to Dr. Anthony Fauci, country's top medical expert on the pandemic and a leading member of President Donald Trump's coronavirus task force.

Nation’s leading infectious disease expert Fauci told CNN late Thursday that all states should be on the same page to fight the COVID-19.

As of Thursday, 90% of the nation was under either a state- or city-mandated shelter-in-place order, that is nearly 300 million Americans.

Responding to CNN's Anderson Cooper's question on the subject, Fauci said he does not understand why the stay-at-home orders are not issued across the country.

"I don't understand why that's not happening," Fauci said. "If you look at what's going on in this country, I just don't understand why we're not doing that. We really should be."

The number of people in the U.S. who have died from the novel coronavirus has surpassed the 6,000 mark, according to data released early Friday by Johns Hopkins University.

The university's running tally counted 6,057 deaths and 245,559 cases as the U.S. struggles to curb the outbreak.

On Sunday, President Donald Trump warned that the next two weeks will be “very painful" in the U.S. in terms of deaths from the virus and urged Americans to brace for "hard days ahead."

Arkansas, North Dakota, South Dakota, Nebraska and Iowa as yet have no state-wide orders. Seven states -- Wyoming, Utah, Texas, Oklahoma, Missouri, Alabama and South Carolina -- have at least one city with shelter-in-place rules.