Americans may still need to wear face masks in 2022, even as the country relaxes other restrictions to combat Covid-19, the nation's top infectious disease expert has said.
While daily infection rates are coming down dramatically, thousands of Americans still die every day from the virus, and less than 15% of the US population has been vaccinated against it.
US President Joe Biden is trying to accelerate the campaign to vaccinate most American adults as local governments clamour for more doses to prevent the highly contagious illness that has claimed nearly 500,000 lives in the United States.
Dr Anthony Fauci, Mr Biden's top medical adviser, told CNN that the approaching deaths tally was "a terribly historic milestone in the history of this