Officials of the Biden administration made media rounds on Sunday where they said Covid-19 restrictions would see further easing as more Americans take vaccine shots. Among easing of restrictions will be mask-wearing guidelines for the inoculated, brining the country closer to normalcy.

The Biden administration’s goal is to vaccinate 70 percent of Americans by July 4 with at least a first shot. The country has seen decline in vaccinations as hesitancy — stoked by the Johnson & Johnson vaccine pause — among Americans has increased and efforts to vaccinate hard-to-reach areas continue.

“I would say we are turning the corner,” Jeff Zients, President Biden’s Covid-19 coordinator, told CNN’s “State of the Union”, (via the Wall Street Journal).

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 58 percent of Americans has received at least one dose of a Covid-19 vaccine.

The U.S. government’s top infectious expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, said the CDC will be updating social distancing and other Covid-related guidelines “almost in realtime” as more Americans take the shots. On ABC’s “This Week”, he said the government needed to start being “more liberal” as result of growing inoculation.

Some Republicans and health experts have called on the administration to ease restrictions further as a means of incentivizing more Americans to get vaccinated. “I think we’re at the point in time when we can start lifting these ordinances in a wholesale fashion, and people have to take precautions based on their individual risk,” Scott Gottlieb, the Trump administration’s FDA chief, told CBS News’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday (via WSJ). “They have to judge their own individual risk and decide whether or not they’re going to avoid crowds or wear masks based on their circumstances.”

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