LONDON - The United States could face more COVID-19 lockdowns if cases go up once again due to the latest variant, even as the most cautious begin to shrug off their virus fears once-and-for-all, British paper Daily Mail has reported, citing the top US infectious-disease expert.

Anthony Fauci, head of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease and adviser to US President Joe Biden, said easing restrictions, waning protection from vaccines and the rise of the BA.2 subvariant around the world could bring on another wave of rising infections to the United States.

"We generally follow what goes on the UK by about two to three weeks," he said.

"I would not be surprised in the next few weeks, given the fact that we've begun to open up, and we have an increase in the BA.2 variant, that we'll be seeing an increase in cases," Fauci said in a CNN interview last week.

At the height of the Omicron surge, the United States hit an all-time record of well over a million new infections every day, the report said.