Fauci says US teens should get vaccinated by autumn, younger children next year

Top US infectious disease official Dr Anthony Fauci on Sunday sounded optimistic about Covid inoculation in the United States, assuring high school students should be able to receive the vaccine by the autumn and younger students will likely be cleared for in early 2022.

Fauci said he expected the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to issue relaxed guidelines for people who have already been vaccinated within "the next couple of days," but urged continued vigilance on mitigation measures for the over 80% of Americans still awaiting shots.

The United States is now vaccinating on average 2.1 million people a day.

"We're going in the right direction. We just need to hang in there a bit longer," Fauci told CBS. 

"We want to get those death levels of the virus very, very low, and then we'll have a much, much easier time to safely pull back" on mitigation measures.

"We project that high school students will very likely be able to be vaccinated by the fall term, maybe not the very first day, but certainly in the early part of the fall," he said.

He said elementary school children would likely be ready to receive vaccinations by the first quarter of next year.

Fauci has also pointed to the need to continue mask mandates and other mitigation measures to avoid a resurgence as new variants emerge.