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(CNN)Dr. Anthony Fauci on Tuesday warned several states including Tennessee, Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky to get a handle on rising coronavirus cases, saying the nation couldn't afford the kinds of surges seen further south and west.
Fauci's comments to ABC's "Good Morning America" echoed fellow White House coronavirus task force member Dr. Deborah Birx, who recently visited those states to warn their numbers were headed the wrong way.
Test positivity rates there have been rising, Fauci said. Tennessee on Monday saw its highest seven-day average of new daily cases, at well over 2,000.
Tennessee's average was around 750 per day a month ago, according to data from Johns Hopkins University.
"We just can't afford, yet again, another surge" like that seen in recent weeks in Florida, Texas, Arizona and California, Fauci told ABC.
Wearing masks, social distancing, closing bars where virus spread is high, and washing hands can help turn the tide, he said. He also repeated what he'd recommended in April: Reopen economies in phases, crossing each phase only after seeing cases decrease over 14 days. States largely ignored that advice.
"We would hope that (states) all now rethink at what happens when you don't adhere to that," Fauci told "Good Morning America."
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