Fauci says he has ‘great degree of confidence’ pandemic guidelines loosen by July 4

The nation’s top infectious disease expert, Anthony Fauci, on Sunday said he has a “great degree of confidence” that if the number of COVID-19 infections per day decreases and vaccinations continue, guidelines will be looser by July 4.

“If, by the time we get to the Fourth of July, with the rollout of the vaccines, we get the level of infection so low, I’m not going to be able to tell you exactly what the specific guidelines of the CDC are, but I can tell you, for sure, they will be much more liberal than they are right now about what you can do,” Fauci told Jake Tapper on CNN’s “State of the Union.”

Fauci’s assessment comes nearly one week after the Centers for Disease Control released the first set of public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people.

According to the guidance, fully vaccinated people can gather with other fully vaccinated people inside without masks or social distancing, visit with some low-risk unvaccinated people indoors without masks or distancing, and refrain from quarantining or testing after a known exposure if asymptomatic.

The federal agency did, however, say that fully vaccinated people should continue to wear masks, practice physical distancing, and avoid medium- and -large sized in-person gatherings.

The U.S. passed 100 million COVID-19 vaccines administered on Friday. President Biden said in a primetime address last week that he wants states to make all adults eligible for the vaccine by May 1, the first suggestion that the country would begin to return to normal by July 4.