Serverless worker doesn't run asynchronously until I request its status in local development

import runpod

def handler(event):
    """
    This is a sample handler function that echoes the input
    and adds a greeting.
    """
    try:
        # Extract the prompt from the input
        prompt = event["input"]["prompt"]

        print (f"Prompt: {prompt}")

        result = f"Hello! You said: {prompt}"

        # Return the result
        return {"output": result}
    except Exception as e:
        # If there's an error, return it
        return {"error": str(e)}

# Start the serverless function
runpod.serverless.start({"handler": handler})

python3 ./handler.py --rp_serve_api --rp_api_host 0.0.0.0 --rp_api_port 8000

--- Starting Serverless Worker |  Version 1.6.2 ---
INFO   | Starting API server.
DEBUG  | Not deployed on RunPod serverless, pings will not be sent.      
INFO:     Started server process [1]                                     
INFO:     Waiting for application startup.
INFO:     Application startup complete.                                  
INFO:     Uvicorn running on http://0.0.0.0:8000 (Press CTRL+C to quit)