Fauci said that while ‘deaths are still up, it’s really flattening, so it’s a lagging indicator’.

He also stressed that masks should remain in use even by vaccinated people when they step out of their home.

‘When you have a lot of infection in the community, even though you’re vaccinated, when you are not home but outside in congregate settings in the public, wearing masks, I think would be very prudent,’ he said.

Some health experts fear Fauci’s rosy prediction will send the wrong message to the public.