WATCH: Fox News’ Chris Wallace Asks Fauci If The U.S. Could Face Quarantine Measures Similar To Italy

On Sunday, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases (NIAID), appeared on “Fox News Sunday” with host Chris Wallace to speak about the latest developments in the fight against coronavirus.

Wallace first asked Fauci about the spread of the virus, as well as the number of confirmed cases and deaths in the United States.

Fauci replied:

Well, we’re having obviously an acceleration of cases now. If you look at it, every day we get more and more. We have somewhere around 350. Probably going to be close to 400 if it isn’t already there. We have at least 18 deaths and they keep coming on every day that goes by. What we’re seeing is what is called “community spread” in certain regions of the country, particularly in the area of Washington state, Seattle.

“So, Italy just announced that it is going to lock down an entire region of northern Italy that includes Milan and Venice with a quarter of the population, millions of people, nobody’s going to be allowed, except under extraordinary circumstances, to go in or to go out,” Wallace stated. “Could that happened here?”

Fauci noted that “we have to be realistic.”

I don’t think it would be as draconian as “nobody in and nobody out,” but there will be, if we continue to get cases like this, particularly at the community level, there will be what we call mitigation, where you’ll have to do essentially social distancing, keep people out of crowded places, take a look at seriousness, do you really need to travel – those kinds of things.

The NIAID head added that this type of mitigation information is most valuable for those who are particularly vulnerable to this virus, such as the elderly and infirm.

And that’s the thing that the CDC and the State Department are going to be making some recommendations about, how people who have underlying conditions, those are the most vulnerable, particularly elderly with underlying conditions – heart disease, chronic lung disease, diabetes – to do right now, not wait, but right now, to sort of take a look at things that are at high risk – crowded places, getting on airplanes, and absolutely don’t get on a cruise ship.

Wallace pressed Fauci on the idea of the United States implementing measures similar to those being seen in Italy, which on Sunday placed millions on lockdown.

“Could you see a situation … where a city is shut down or a state or a region is shut down … nobody in, nobody out?” Wallace asked.

Fauci replied:

It’s possible. I think what you need to do on real-time basis – and that’s the reason why we evaluate it literally every single day – you know, you don’t want to alarm people, but given the spread we see, you know, anything is possible, and that’s the reason why we’ve got to be prepared to take whatever action is appropriate to contain and mitigate the outbreak.

According to NBC News, which cites data from its own reports, the “World Health Organization, state government leaders and health officials,” there have been over 100,000 confirmed coronavirus cases worldwide, and more than 3,500 deaths as of Sunday.