CDC Director Rochelle Walensky this week issued an impassioned plea for Americans to continue taking COVID-19 precautions, warning of the "impending doom" of another surge.
Health experts said California isn't immune to the possible rise in cases.
On top of the warning from the CDC director, President Joe Biden is also asking states to consider pausing reopening.
On KCBS Radio’s "The State of California," NYU Professor of infectious disease and former member of President Biden's COVID-19 task force Dr. Celine Gounder said that warning also applies to California.
She added that it's too early to say the COVID-19 outlook has truly improved.
"What we saw was a plateau of cases – about 50,000 cases per day for about a month," Gounder said.
The doctor noted that such a plateau has historically been followed by a surge.
In the golden state, the wild cards of variants and equitability challenges with health care and the vaccine create the foundation for another spike.
"Imagine you are in a burning building and a firefighter is climbing a ladder to your window to rescue you," Gounder said. "You look at that firefighter and you say ‘You know what, you’re just not climbing fast enough,’ and you jump out the window."
But this won't last forever, and Gounder said these precautions should be taken for a number of weeks, not months.
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