Dr. Anthony Fauci, chief medical adviser for President Biden, said in an interview that the United States is almost past the “full-blown” pandemic phase of COVID-19.
While talking about the pandemic with the Financial Times, Fauci said government responses will eventually be handled locally rather than on a federal level.
Though he did not mention a specific month, Fauci told the paper that these restrictions may end “soon”.
“As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated,” he said.
“There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus,” he added.
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 across the U.S. has increased more than 28% over the past three weeks to about 105,000.
The seven-day average of new cases nationwide was at 247,319 on Monday, which is down almost 70 percent since mid-January.
Fauci said the virus won’t be completely eradicated, but he hopes “we are looking at a time when we have enough people vaccinated and enough people with protection from previous infection that the Covid restrictions will soon be a thing of the past”.
He added that not every American will need regular boosters in the future. “It will depend on who you are,” he said. “But if you are a normal, healthy 30-year-old person with no underlying conditions, you might need a booster only every four or five years”.
