疾控中心主任罗谢尔·瓦伦斯基博士在周一的一次情绪恳求中说，她感到一种“阻碍厄运”的感觉又一次激增在新冠肺炎，感染病例增加了10%，乔·拜登总统呼吁恢复口罩强制令。

“我将反思我对即将到来的厄运的反复感觉，”瓦伦斯基在白宫简报会上说。“我们有太多的期待，太多的希望和潜力，太多的希望。但现在，我很害怕。”

瓦伦斯基有反复警告如果美国人不继续戴口罩，避免旅行，并继续保持社交距离，直到更多的人接种疫苗，美国将面临另一个可避免的新冠肺炎病例激增。

苏珊·沃尔什-普尔/盖蒂影像公司

疾病控制和预防中心主任罗谢尔·瓦伦斯基博士在

不久之后，拜登回应了她的警告。

拜登在一次宣布更多疫苗资格的活动中说:“我再次呼吁每一位州长、市长和地方领导人保持并恢复口罩的授权——请。”“这不是政治。如果你失望了，就恢复授权。企业也应该要求佩戴口罩。不认真对待这种病毒——正是它首先让我们陷入这种困境——有可能导致更多病例和更多办公桌——死亡。”

他说:“我们正处于病毒传播的生死竞赛中，随着病例再次上升，新的变种正在传播。”“可悲的是，过去几周我们在电视上看到的一些鲁莽行为意味着，未来几周还会有更多的新案件出现。”他说，他认为一些州应该暂停重新开放的努力。

埃文·武奇/美联社

乔·拜登总统在一次关于新冠肺炎疫苗接种和对巴勒斯坦权力机构的回应的活动中发言

瓦伦斯基说，疾控中心现在看到新的新冠肺炎病例和因这种疾病住院的人数增加，她将这归因于最近几周旅行的增加、取消限制和更放松的行为。

七天的平均病例数略低于每天60，000例，比前一时期增加了10%。住院和死亡人数也有所增加。

瓦伦斯基说，疾控中心正在调查个别州的地方疫情。增幅最大的是密歇根州、康涅狄格州、北达科他州、纽约州、爱荷华州和佛蒙特州。

“我认为，我们看到许多这样的州正在以我们不一定推荐的水平开放。我在和州长们一起工作。她说:“我明天会和他们谈谈，努力克制自己不要开放得太快。

瓦伦斯基回顾了她过去一年治疗新冠肺炎病人的经历，她说，她是最后一个在某人的亲人临终时陪在他们身边的人，她知道医疗保健提供者的压力，不确定他们是否有资源治疗每个病人。

她说，随着疫苗接种工作的进行，大流行的结束指日可待，但她说，在更多的美国人接种疫苗之前，每个人都必须继续戴口罩，避免不必要的旅行，并采取措施防止更多的人生病。她警告说，继去年夏天或今年冬天之后，新冠肺炎疫情的再次激增将会减缓为更多人接种疫苗的努力。

“我们已经走了这么长的路。三大历史性科学突破疫苗，我们正在快速推出。所以我今天不一定是作为你的疾控中心主任，也不仅仅是作为你的疾控中心主任，而是作为一个妻子，一个母亲，一个女儿，请你再坚持一会儿，”她说。

“我非常想被完成，我知道你们都非常想被完成，我们就快完成了，但还没有完全完成。因此，我请你们尽可能多坚持一会儿，接种疫苗，这样当这场流行病结束时，我们所有热爱的人都还在这里，”她说。

Biden calls for mask mandates, CDC director fears 'impending doom' from COVID surge

CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky, in an emotional plea Monday, said she feels a sense of "impeding doom" aboutanother surgein COVID-19 cases as infections increased 10% and President Joe Biden called for a return of mask mandates.

"I'm going to reflect on the recurring feeling I have of impending doom," Walensky said at a White House briefing. "We have so much to look forward to, so much promise and potential of where we are, and so much reason for hope. But right now, I'm scared."

Walensky hasrepeatedly warnedthat the country would face another, avoidable surge in COVID-19 cases if Americans didn't keep wearing masks, avoid travel, and continue social distancing until more of the population is vaccinated.

Not long after, Biden echoed her warning.

"I'm reiterating my call for every governor, mayor, and local leader to maintain and reinstate the mask mandate – please," Biden said at an event announcing more vaccine eligibility. "This is not politics. Reinstate the mandate if you let it down. And businesses should require masks as well. The failure to take this virus seriously -- precisely what got us in this mess in the first place -- risks more cases and more desks -- deaths."

"We're in the life-and-death race for the virus that is spreading quickly, with cases rising again, new variants are spreading,” he said. “And, sadly, some of the reckless behavior we have seen on television over the past few weeks means that more new cases are to come in the weeks ahead." He said he thought some states should pause their reopening efforts.

Walensky said the CDC is now seeing the number of new COVID-19 cases and people hospitalized with the disease increase, which she attributed to increased travel in recent weeks, lifting restrictions, and more relaxed behavior.

The seven-day average of cases is slightly below 60,000 cases a day, a 10% increase over the previous period. Hospitalizations and deaths also have increased.

Walensky said the CDC is investigating outbreaks at a local level in individual states. The largest increases have occurred in Michigan, Connecticut, North Dakota, New York, Iowa and Vermont.

"I think we are seeing that many of these states are opening up at levels that we wouldn't necessarily recommend. I am working with the governors. I will be speaking with them tomorrow to try and buckle down on trying to refrain from opening up too fast," she said.

Walensky reflected on her experience treating COVID-19 patients over the last year, saying she has been the last person to sit with someone's loved one when they were dying and knows the stress on healthcare providers not sure if they'll have the resources to treat every patient.

And she said with the vaccination effort underway the end of the pandemic is within reach, but she said until more Americans are vaccinated everyone has to continue wearing masks, refrain from nonessential travel, and take steps to prevent more people from becoming sick. She warned another COVID-19 surge along the lines of last summer or the winter would slow down efforts to vaccinate more people.

"We have come such a long way. Three historic scientific breakthroughvaccines, and we are rolling them out so very fast. So I'm speaking today not necessarily as your CDC director or not only as your CDC director, but as a wife, as a mother, as a daughter, to ask you to just please hold on for a little while longer," she said.

"I so badly want to be done, I know you all so badly want to be done, we're just almost there, but not quite yet. And so I'm asking you to just hold on a little longer to get vaccinated when you can, so that all of those people that we all love was still be here when this pandemic ends," she said.