WATCH: Fauci says we 'really should' still wear masks indoors

Dr. Anthony Fauci said that Americans should still wear masks in an indoor setting. Fauci's comments came while discussing the BA.5 variant, calling it something that we "absolutely need to take seriously."

"The CDC makes it very clear, depending upon the density of infection, the dynamics of infection, in the place where you live," Fauci said on CNN. "And you see, if you look at the map, where just a couple months of ago, it was a lot of green and some yellow, now we're seeing a fair amount of orange, which means you really should, in an indoor setting, a congregate setting, be wearing masks."

"It's just the appropriate thing to do to defend- To protect yourself and your family, and those around you, because you could get infected and inadvertently, without any symptoms, transmit it to someone perhaps in your own household, who’s vulnerable, either an elderly person or someone with immune compromise," he contnued.

"And that’s the reason why when you're in an area where the infection dynamic is high, you should wear a mask in a congregate indoor setting," he concluded on the matter.

Fauci has been asked recently what he would say to Amerians that are tired of protocols, as the COVID situation continues to improve across the country and the pandemic seems further and further back in peoples' rearviews. Fauci admitted that getting people to follow protocols is a "hard sell," saying that he does not want to completely disrupt peoples' lives.

"But you have to remember we're still dealing with an issue. And you can deal with it without necessarily disrupting your way of life, by doing some simple things: getting tested, for example," he said, according to NBC New York.

"Tests are widely available right now. If you're going to a function or you have someone in your family who's a vulnerable person that you want to make sure that you are not exposing yourself to them if you get infected and you might actually not have any symptoms at all. Testing is an important mitigation. The next is vaccination. The next is boosting. And if, in fact, a person does get infected, if you are in a risk group, widely available now are very effective therapies," he said.

"The point I'm making is we don't want people to panic and feel, 'Oh, my goodness, we want to get this over with and they keep telling us things that we have to do.'"

"What one has to do is really relatively simple, but the dividend of that is extraordinary because you can prevent yourself from getting infected and certainly with the vaccines that we have, they are still very effective in preventing you from progressing to severe disease if you do get infected," he concluded.