New vaccination timeline: Fauci expects April to be ‘open season’

(CNN) – As more coronavirus vaccinations roll out and into the arms of eligible Americans, Dr. Anthony Fauci is putting together a timeline of when the rest of the country could potentially get their shots.

“If you look at the projection, I would imagine by the time we get to April that will be what I would call … open season, namely virtually everybody and anybody in any category can start to get vaccinated,” said Fauci, the director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases.

He believes that toward the end of April places like pharmacies, community vaccine centers and mobile units will help pick up the pace.

And that won’t just be for those in higher priority groups.

Still, it’ll take several more months for everyone to be fully vaccinated who wants to be.

“Hopefully, as we get into the middle and end of the summer, we could have accomplished the goal of what we’re talking about,” Fauci said. “Namely, the overwhelming majority of people in this country having gotten vaccinated.”

As more cases of the highly contagious virus variants are confirmed in the United States, officials say genetic sequencing needs to be stepped up.

Doing that will help the country see how quickly the mutations are spreading.

Health officials say the current vaccines may be slightly less effective against the variants, but do work against them.

Both Pfizer and Moderna are currently looking into booster shots that would specifically target variants.