Washington, June 20 (RHC)-- The United States does not require more widespread lockdowns to get its COVID-19 outbreak under control, a leading government expert told the AFP news agency, amid concerns over an uptick of cases in some 20 states, including California, Florida and Texas.    

"I don't think we're going to be talking about going back to lockdown," Anthony Fauci said when asked if states that are seeing a surge in their caseload should reissue stay-at-home orders.

"I think we're going to be talking about trying to better control those areas of the country that seem to be having a surge of cases." 

Stressing the need for localised approaches, Fauci said one thing that bothered him was the public's lack of compliance to authorities' recommendations about wearing masks.   "We have a country where even when the recommendations are to wear a mask, a recommendation that I've been involved in making, there are some groups that actually do the recommendations very strictly and they adhere to it," he said.

"And then... you see pictures of people in bars and in congregations without that.  So again, it's a mixed bag.  Some people are doing it fine, and some are not."