CDC Releases Behavioral Guidelines for Vaccinated Americans
Americans who are fully vaccinated against coronavirus can meet without masks in small group settings, according to new guidelines released by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention on Monday.
Fully vaccinated people may gather without masks or social-distancing indoors, the CDC said, and unvaccinated family members may gather with vaccinated family. Additionally, a fully vaccinated person is no longer urged to quarantine after being exposed to a coronavirus patient. The vaccinated person is recommended to quarantine only if they develop symptoms following exposure.
“There are some activities that fully vaccinated people can begin to resume now in the privacy of their own homes,” CDC director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement.
A person is considered completely vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer-BioNTech and Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after the single-dose Johnson and Johnson vaccine.
However, Walensky cautioned, “everyone — even those who are vaccinated — should continue with all mitigation strategies when in public settings.”
The CDC still recommends that vaccinated Americans practice social distancing and mask-wearing in public settings and in large groups of people. The agency has not updated its travel guidelines for vaccinated people, meaning that even those who are vaccinated are urged to get tested for coronavirus before and after traveling.
The agency released its guidelines after delaying them last week, for unclear reasons.
Over 17 percent of Americans have received at least one coronavirus vaccine shot, according to data from the CDC, while 9 percent of the population is fully inoculated. The U.S. is currently administering over two million doses of the vaccine per day, according to the Bloomberg coronavirus vaccine tracker.
