Planning or wondering whether to recommend a trip south of the border, but not sure whether the time is right yet? According to the US’s top infectious disease expert, the coronavirus is under better control in the country and the state of the nation is “much, much better off than… a year ago.”

“We are in a different moment of the pandemic,” says Dr. Anthony Fauci, adding that, after a brutal winter surge, “we’ve now decelerated and transitioned into more of a controlled phase.”

However, Fauci also cautioned that “by no means does that mean the pandemic is over.”

His comments came a day after he said on the PBS “NewsHour” that the US was “out of the pandemic phase” and also told The Washington Post that the country was finally “out of the full-blown explosive pandemic phase.”

Fauci’s remarks reflect how US health authorities are wrestling with the next stage of the pandemic – how to keep COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations manageable and learn to live with what’s still a mutating and unpredictable virus.

Fauci said the US appears to be out of what he called the “fulminant phase” of the pandemic, huge variant surges that at their worst sparked hundreds of thousands of infections daily, along with tens of thousands of hospitalizations and thousands of deaths.

COVID-19 cases are at a lower point than they’ve been in months and two-thirds of the US population is vaccinated. Nearly half of those who need a booster dose have gotten the extra shot, and effective treatments are available.

Still, there have been lulls before, and while cases are low, they are increasing in many parts of the country. Vaccination rates worldwide are far lower, especially in developing countries.

To keep improving, Fauci ticked off a to-do list: Get more people fully vaccinated; develop even better vaccines; figure out the best booster strategy to counter variants; and make sure people can access treatment as soon as they need it.

“We can’t take our foot off the pedal,” Fauci said. “There’s a lot of viral dynamics throughout the world and we still may get another variant which could lead to another potential surge.”