Fully vaccinated Americans can now meet in small groups without masks or physical distancing, said the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) amid news 18% of the U.S. population has gotten at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
Vaccinated individuals also don't need to quarantine or receive a COVID-19 test after being exposed to the virus if they don't have any symptoms or are asymptomatic, the CDC said Monday. These welcome pieces of advice come as part of the first guidelines issued by CDC covering fully vaccinated people.
CDC considers a person fully vaccinated two weeks after he receives the second dose of the two-shot vaccines made by Pfizer/BioNTech and by Moderna, or two weeks after being inoculated by the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine. The first COVID-19 vaccinations in the U.S. began in December 2020.
"Our guidance must balance the risk to people who have been fully vaccinated, the risks to those who have not yet received the vaccine and the impact on the larger community transmission of Covid-19," said CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky.
As part of the guidelines, CDC urges vaccinated people not to take long trips. It said fully vaccinated people can visit with unvaccinated members of a single household without wearing masks, or maintaining social distancing as long as everyone in that household is at low risk for severe COVID-19.
If unvaccinated people come from multiple households, everyone must take precautions such as meeting outside, wearing masks and maintaining at least six feet of distance. Everyone should also avoid bigger gatherings.
On the other hand, CDC said fully vaccinated people should continue taking precautions to prevent the spread of all variants of SARS-CoV-2 (severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2), the virus that causes COVID-19.
Fully immunized people should also continue wearing masks and keep their distance from others in public. These same precautions should apply when visiting unvaccinated people at higher risk for severe COVID-19.
"Anyone who is fully vaccinated, regardless of their underlying risk, can feel more confidence that they can avoid severe illness from COVID-19," said Dr. Ajay Sethi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
He cautioned that people have to recognize that some people can pick up the virus and transmit to others. People living in nonmedical facilities such as prisons should continue to quarantine and get tested following exposure to COVID-19 even after being vaccinated.
CDC, however, didn't update its travel guidance for vaccinated individuals.
"We would like to give the opportunity for vaccinated grandparents to visit their children and grandchildren who are healthy and who are local, but our travel guidance is currently unchanged," said Dr. Walensky.
