CDC, White house anticipating time when COVID-19 isn’t a crisis as pandemic restrictions loosened

As state and local leaders move to lift COVID-19 restrictions around the country, top health officials said Wednesday that the U.S. is moving toward a time when the pandemic isn’t a crisis. 

Speaking at the White House COVID-19 response team briefing, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said that she knows Americans are anxious to move beyond the pandemic. 

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“We all share the same goal: to get to a point where COVID-19 is no longer disrupting our daily lives; a time when it won’t be a constant crisis, rather something we can prevent, protect against and treat,” she remarked. 

Walensky pledged that moving forward would be a process led by science and epidemiologic trends.

White House COVID-19 response coordinator Jeff Zients said that, due to progress the U.S. has made and the tools it has, the nation is “moving toward a time when COVID isn’t a crisis but is something we can protect against and treat.”

“The president and our COVID team are actively planning for this future. As we look forward, we’ll continue to enhance the powerful set of tools that we have at our disposal. Vaccines, booster shots, tests and treatments will keep protecting our most vulnerable, including the immunocompromised,” he told reporters. 

The White House also announced that the U.S. had reached 50 million shipped COVID-19 tests to households across all states. 

Walensky also said the CDC was considering revising mask guidance “soon.” 

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Leaders across the U.S. have cited falling case rates and hospitalizations since January’s surge of the omicron variant as reasons to lift proof of vaccine or mask mandates. 

Washington’s King County announced that it will no longer require COVID-19 vaccination checks to enter restaurants, bars, theaters and gyms beginning March 1.

Philadelphia officials said the city’s vaccine mandate for restaurants was immediately lifted – though indoor mask mandates remain in place for now. 

In Provincetown, Massachusetts, officials lifted a mask mandate and vaccine requirement for indoor spaces like restaurants and bars on Tuesday.

Around the U.S. the seven-day rolling average for daily new cases has dropped from approximately 453,000 two weeks ago to about 136,000 as of Tuesday, according to data from Johns Hopkins University. 

The university’s tracker showed 136,3888 new daily cases on Thursday, with 3,083 deaths. 

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Almost 65% of Americans are fully vaccinated.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.