People fully vaccinated against COVID can gather safely indoors without masks, CDC says
For those itching to return to pre-pandemic normalcy, federal health officials just released new guidance that offers some good news — but only for people who have been fully vaccinated.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced Monday that people who have received both doses of the Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna vaccine, or one dose of the Johnson & Johnson shot, can gather indoors two weeks after completing their vaccination series with other fully vaccinated individuals without masks or physical distancing.
The risk of infection in such scenarios is low, the agency says. But including individuals who have not completed their vaccinations — or those who have not been vaccinated at all — in indoor gatherings can increase the chances someone gets infected.
That’s because the currently available COVID-19 vaccines do not fully prevent coronavirus infection, meaning vaccinated people can still get infected and spread it to others. However, data indicate the shots make it less likely that an infected vaccinated person could spread the virus to others or experience symptoms.
The CDC says fully vaccinated people can meet with unvaccinated individuals from a single household indoors without masks or distancing if those people are at low risk for severe COVID-19. Those who have completed their vaccination series can also “refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure if asymptomatic,” according to the report.
Still, fully vaccinated people should avoid large in-person gatherings and take precautions in public such as wearing well-fitted masks and physical distancing, especially when around unvaccinated people.
“Until more is known and vaccination coverage increases, some prevention measures will continue to be necessary for all people, regardless of vaccination status. However, the benefits of reducing social isolation and relaxing some measures such as quarantine requirements may outweigh the residual risk of fully vaccinated people becoming ill with COVID-19 or transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to others,” the CDC said.
“Additionally, taking steps towards relaxing certain measures for vaccinated persons may help improve COVID-19 vaccine acceptance and uptake. Therefore, there are several activities that fully vaccinated people can resume now, at low risk to themselves, while being mindful of the potential risk of transmitting the virus to others.”
The CDC is not updating its travel guidelines for fully vaccinated people at this time.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said last week during a White House COVID-19 response briefing that the nation continues “to see troubling signs in the trajectory of the pandemic… with the most recent declines in cases and deaths continuing to show signs of stalling.”
But on Monday, Walensky revealed that the seven-day average of COVID-19 cases has decreased 76% since Jan. 11, with slightly lower than 2,000 deaths occurring per day.
“These numbers show us that the pandemic still remains a very serious situation,” she said. “We are watching the data closely to see where the pandemic will head in the coming days.”
More than 58.8 million Americans have received at least one dose of a coronavirus vaccine as of March 7 — about 18% of the total population, a CDC tracker shows. More than 30.6 million people have received their second and final dose, or about 9% of the total population.
