COVID-19 has "brought this nation to its knees," Dr. Robert Redfield, director of the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, said Tuesday.
The country is probably going to spend about $7 trillion "because of one little virus," Redfield said during a House Energy and Commerce Committee hearing.
"We've all done the best that we can do to tackle this virus."
Redfield's comments were made as half of US states are seeing spikes in new coronavirus cases -- and it's not just due to increased testing, health officials say.
As of Tuesday, 25 states have recorded higher rates of new cases compared to last week: Arizona, California, Colorado, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Hawaii, Idaho, Kansas, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, Washington, West Virginia, Wisconsin and Wyoming. And no state has effectively transitioned from stay-at-home orders "to a public health model of testing, tracking, isolating and quarantining," said Dr. Richard Besser, former acting director of the US CDC.