The US is going to continue to see cases surge from the Omicron variant but may see them fall as they did in South Africa, Dr. Anthony Fauci said Monday.“We’re certainly going to continue to see a surge for a while, Kaitlan. I fully expect that it will turn around. I hope it turns around as sharply as what we’ve seen in South Africa,” Fauci, director of the National institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins.The US is currently averaging close to 200,000 new Covid-19 cases per day, a 47% increase from last week and the highest this number has been since January of 2021. While the virus may turn out to be less severe, Fauci said, those numbers can still strain American health infrastructure. “It looks like the degree of severity of the disease is considerably less than they experienced with Delta. We’re seeing inklings of that now in the United States. The UK is also seeing that. So I do hope that we do have the net effect is a diminution in the degree of severity,” said Fauci.“But the sheer volume of cases that we’re seeing now — yesterday we had 214,000 cases. Even with a diminution in severity we still could have a surge on hospitals, particularly among the unvaccinated, which we’re really worried about,” he continued. Fauci said “it’s possible” the US will see 500,000 new cases in a day in the future, but he doesn’t think the country will get to that point. Vaccinations and boosters, he said, are important in keeping numbers down.“There are so many things that we can do to mitigate against that. The thing we keep talking about is that you know if you’re not vaccinated, get vaccinated. But importantly, boosters are really looming as something very, very important,” he said. “Boosters are always good for any variant but particularly for Omicron. If you are vaccinated and not yet boosted and your time comes for getting boosted, please get boosted. It’s going to make all the difference to prevent you from getting severe disease,” he added.