Fauci: U.S. is 'certainly' out of pandemic stage of COVID-19

Dr. Anthony Fauci, the country's top infectious disease expert, says the United States is "certainly" past the pandemic stage of fighting the coronavirus, though he acknowledges it continues in other countries around the world.

"We are certainly right now in this country out of the pandemic phase," he told PBS NewsHour host Judy Woodruff on Tuesday. "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. So, if you're saying, are we out of the pandemic phase in this country, we are."

Fauci, also President Biden's chief medical adviser, also said the U.S. was "not going to eradicate this virus" entirely and that the government should continue a practice of "intermittently vaccinat(ing) people."

Many Americans, he said, may have to get vaccinated annually for an unclear period of time in an effort to reduce the number of infections. 

"That might be every year, that might be longer, in order to keep that level low. But, right now, we are not in the pandemic phase in this country," he said.