The US shouldn't ease restrictions in place to prevent Covid-19 before the number of new coronavirus cases falls below 10,000 daily, "and maybe even considerably less than that", Dr. Anthony Fauci said Thursday.
The US should pull restrictions gradually, after a substantial portion of Americans are vaccinated, Fauci told CNN's Jake Tapper.
The last time the US saw fewer than 10,000 new daily cases was almost a year ago, on March 22, 2020. The number hasn't fallen below 50,000 daily cases since mid-October, and the seven-day average on Wednesday was more than 64,000.
"We will be pulling back", said Fauci, President Joe Biden's chief medical adviser. "We're now up to about 2 million vaccinations per day. That means every day that goes by, every week that goes by, you have more and more people protected".
Fauci's comments come as some states begin to pull back restrictions, including doing away with mask mandates, allowing businesses to fully open and increasing the number of people allowed at mass gatherings.
That is "inexplicable", Fauci said earlier.
