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Syndication: USA TODAY
WASHINGTON (77WABC) — The end of the full blown phase of the COVID 19 pandemic may be near. White House chief medical advisor Dr. Anthony Fauci told the Financial Times virus restrictions may no longer be necessary sometime this year, including masking.
“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,” Fauci said in an interview published Tuesday. “There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus.”
However in contrast, the head of the CDC Dr. Rochelle Walensky warned Americans not to get ahead of themselves.
.@CDCDirector Dr. Walensky: "We've always said that these decisions are going to have to be made at the local level…in many of these decisions are using a phased approach." pic.twitter.com/mhvkVgzs0K
— CSPAN (@cspan) February 10, 2022
“Our hospitalizations are still high, our death rates are still high, so as we…are encouraged by the current trends, we are not there yet,” she said, in reference to mask wearing. “At this time we continue to recommend masking in areas of high and substantial transmission, that’s much of the country right now in public, indoor settings.”
According to the CDC, the seven-day average of new cases in the U.S. stood at just under 250,000 on Monday. That’s down 69 percent from Jan. 15, when 805,624 cases were reported.
