The “full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19” is finally on the way out as virus cases quickly fall across the U.S., Dr. Anthony Fauci said this week.
Fauci added that he’s optimistic all COVID restrictions will end “soon,” and that even means lifting mask mandates. That has started already as the Massachusetts Department of Elementary and Secondary Education on Wednesday announced that the K-12 mask mandate will end on Feb. 28.
Fauci’s comments about the pandemic come as COVID cases plunge following the massive surge of omicron variant cases, hospitalizations and deaths.
“As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated,” Fauci, President Biden’s chief medical advisor, told the Financial Times.
“There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus,” added Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.
While Fauci said he’s hopeful all virus restrictions will soon end, he cautioned that local officials could bring back measures if there were community flare-ups.
“There is no way we are going to eradicate this virus,” Fauci said. “But I hope 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.”
Annual COVID vax booster shots won’t be necessary for everyone, he added.
“It will depend on who you are,” Fauci 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.”
Locally, the Boston-area COVID wastewater tracker continues to show sinking data, another encouraging sign that the omicron variant is quickly retreating. The sewage data is the earliest indicator of future COVID cases in the community.
The latest update on the wastewater tracker showed that both the south of Boston and north of Boston wastewater levels have dropped back to what the levels were in late November before the omicron surge.
The south of Boston seven-day average is now 633 copies per milliliter, which is about a 95% plummet from the omicron peak in early January.
The north of Boston seven-day average is now at 572 copies per milliliter, which is a 93% plunge from the peak on the northern side.
These are test results from the Massachusetts Water Resources Authority’s pilot study to track wastewater for indicators of COVID-19 infection.
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