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Turns out it was just a phase. As the nation's top infectious disease expert, what Anthony Fauci, MD, says carries considerable weight, and his statement that the U.S. was “out of the pandemic phase” Tuesday made national headlines.

Many of us have longed to hear an official call on the end of the COVID-19 pandemic. But on Wednesday, Fauci clarified his comments, telling The Washington Post that the country is not out of the pandemic, but "out of the full-blown explosive pandemic phase."

He had said on PBS NewsHour on Tuesday that, "We don't have 900,000 new infections a day, and tens and tens and tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths.

"We are at a low level right now. So if you're [asking] are we out of the pandemic phase in this country? We are," said Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases. Head over to WebMD to read the full story.