New COVID-19 spike could hurt US economy’s V-shaped recovery: White House Adviser Kudlow

Earlier in the day, top US epidemiologist Anthony Fauci said the United States is likely to see a major spike in coronavirus infections in mid-January stemming from year-end holidays in 2020.

"I’m going to make the case that I think we are in a strong V-shaped recovery," Kudlow said in a live-streamed interview with The Washington Post. "I do believe there are threats to that recovery with respect to the Christmas pops in the virus."

The US economy grew by 33.1 percent in the third quarter, after shrinking by 31.4 percent in the previous three months and 5 percent in the first quarter.

Despite the rebound, the economic outlook for the United States remains dire with a rash of new coronavirus infections reported across a nation with 14.8 million COVID-19 cases since January and more than 282,000 fatalities from that. In recent weeks, national daily hospitalization rates have reached more than 100,000, threatening to overrun the health system, experts said.

US jobs recovery has, meanwhile, stalled to its lowest since the start of pandemic.

The United States lost more than 21 million jobs between March and April, at the height of lockdowns forced by the COVID-19. A rebound of 2.5 million jobs was logged in May and 4.8 million in June, before the recovery began slowing. For both September and October, less than 700,000 jobs were added each month. In November, a mere 245,000 new jobs were registered, the smallest growth since May, when jobs started coming back.