Dr. Anthony Fauci, Chief Medical Advisor to the President announced that the United States is currently “out of the pandemic phase” of COVID-19 in regards to new infections, hospitalizations and death and that it appears that the country is making its way to transition to the virus becoming an endemic.
Fauci, also the nation’s top infectious disease expert, told PBS “Newshour” April 26, that the coronavirus remains a pandemic in much of the world, and the fight against the virus is still not over for the United States, but that the country was phasing out of the worst stages of the pandemic and virus.
“We are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase,” Dr. Fauci said on Newshour. “Namely, we don’t have 900,000 new infections a day and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths. We are at a low level right now.”
However on April 27, Fauci clarified and elaborated on his previous statements to the Washington Post.
“We’re really in a transitional phase, from a deceleration of the numbers into hopefully a more controlled phase and endemicity,” Fauci said. “The world is still in a pandemic. There’s no doubt about that. Don’t anybody get any misinterpretation of that. We are still experiencing a pandemic.”
These comments from the Fauci come as health authorities struggle to keep COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations low to learn how to live with a virus that is still mutating and very unpredictable.
The nation’s leaders, including President Biden and his administration, have continually encouraged Americans to take precautions to avoid contracting the virus and that the nation has tools like vaccines, booster shots and medications that can help keep the public safer than during the peak of the pandemic.
While U.S cases are much lower than in recent months, health officials are still keeping a close eye on the situation to monitor for the possibility of more highly infectious variants and the ones that currently still circulate. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) say cases nationwide have risen about 25% in the past week.
amNewYork is awaiting comments from Mayor Adams’s office, as well as the NYC Department of Health’s office.
With AP Reports.
