WASHINGTON - The United States may see "surge upon a surge" of COVID-19 cases in the weeks after Thanksgiving due to cold weather and travel, US top infectious disease expert Anthony Fauci said Sunday.

"We don't want to frighten people, but that's just the reality," Fauci, director of the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, told ABC's This Week, adding that he does not expect a relaxation of current public health restrictions or recommendations before Christmas.

"We said that these things would happen, as we got into the cold weather and as we began traveling, and they've happened. It's going to happen again," Fauci said.

Fauci's warning came as more than 90,000 COVID-19 patients are currently hospitalized across the United States, with over 18,000 in intensive care units, according to the COVID Tracking Project.

The United States has recorded more than 13.37 million cases with over 266,800 related deaths as of Sunday night, according to the real-time count kept by Johns Hopkins University.