COVID-19 updates: US cases at lowest point since Christmas

Dr. Anthony told the Financial Times that the U.S. is "heading out of" the "full-blown pandemic phase" and that he hopes masks and other measures can be dropped entirely in the coming months.

“As we get out of the full-blown pandemic phase of COVID-19, which we are certainly heading out of, these decisions will increasingly be made on a local level rather than centrally decided or mandated," Fauci said. "There will also be more people making their own decisions on how they want to deal with the virus.”

“There is no way we are going to eradicate this virus,” Fauci cautioned. “But I hope we are looking at a time when we have enough people vaccinated and enough people with protection from previous infection that the COVID restrictions will soon be a thing of the past.”

-ABC News' Cheyenne Haslett

Illinois plans to lift its indoor mask mandate at the end of month, Gov. JB Pritzker said, citing "hospitalization rates declining faster than any other point in the pandemic."

"If these trends continue -- and we expect them to -- then on Monday, Feb. 28, we will lift the indoor mask requirement," he said Wednesday.

Masks will continue in Illinois schools "subject to pending litigation which impacts a number of schools," the governor's office said. "As the CDC reaffirmed just today, masks remain a critical tool to keep schools safe and open."

The governors of New York and Rhode Island also announced an end to their indoor mask mandates on Wednesday.

Rhode Island will lift the statewide indoor mask policy on Friday, Gov. Dan McKee announced.

Rhode Island's school mask mandate will be extended until March. 4. At that time, school masking policies will be decided by individual school districts.

This comes hours after New York Gov. Kathy Hochul said New York's indoor mask mandate will end on Thursday.

The U.S. case rate has dropped by nearly 70% since the peak and now stands at an average of 247,000 new cases each day, according to federal data.

Alaska currently leads the nation in new cases per capita, followed by Mississippi and West Virginia.

For the first time since early January, fewer than 100,000 COVID-19-positive patients are in U.S. hospitals -- a big drop from the country's peak of 160,000 patients nearly three weeks ago.

Although U.S. cases and hospitalizations are falling, deaths -- a lagging indicator -- are close to the highest point in nearly one year.

The U.S. daily death toll is hovering around 2,400. Since the beginning of 2022 nearly 77,000 Americans have died of COVID-19, according to federal data.

Mississippi currently holds the country's highest seven-day death rate followed by Virginia and Ohio.

-ABC News' Arielle Mitropoulos