New CDC Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People -- Masking and Social Distancing Guidelines

 

Public Understanding

This blog post has been copied from the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention site on the Internet and ABC News. Readers should access and read the complete report by clicking the CDC here: https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html. This blog entry in no way assumes responsibility for comprehending and applying the official report of “the first set of public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people.” It is provided here for informational purposes and further research.

Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People

(Updated March 8, 2021)

Key Points

This is the first set of public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people. This guidance will be updated and expanded based on the level of community spread of SARS-CoV-2, the proportion of the population that is fully vaccinated, and the rapidly evolving science on COVID-19 vaccines.

For the purposes of this guidance, people are considered fully vaccinated for COVID-19 ≥2 weeks after they have received the second dose in a 2-dose series (Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna), or ≥2 weeks after they have received a single-dose vaccine (Johnson and Johnson [J&J]/Janssen ).†

† This guidance applies to COVID-19 vaccines currently authorized for emergency use by the Food and Drug Administration: Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson [J&J]/Janssen COVID-19 vaccines. Considerations for applying this guidance to vaccines that are not FDA-authorized include whether the vaccine product has received emergency approval from the World Health Organization or authorization from a national regulatory agency.

The following recommendations apply to non-healthcare settings.

Fully vaccinated people can:

• Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing

• Visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing

• Refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure if asymptomatic

For now, fully vaccinated people should continue to:

• Take precautions in public like wearing a well-fitted mask and physical distancing

• Wear masks, practice physical distancing, and adhere to other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease or who have an unvaccinated household member who is at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease

• Wear masks, maintain physical distance, and practice other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people from multiple households

• Avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings

• Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms

• Follow guidance issued by individual employer

• Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations

Discussion About the New Recommendations

"If you and a friend or you and a family member are both vaccinated, you can have dinner together," CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said, without wearing masks and without distancing. "You can visit your grandparents, if you have been vaccinated and they have been too," she said in a White House briefing.

In a group where some individuals are vaccinated and some aren't, Walensky said the recommendations are more complicated. CDC says it is low risk for vaccinated individuals to gather with unvaccinated individuals indoors without masks and social distancing, as long as the people who aren't vaccinated are at low risk of severe disease and no one in their household as at high risk.

"Here's an example: If grandparents have been vaccinated, they can visit their daughter and her family, even if they have not been vaccinated, so long as the daughter and her family are not at risk for severe disease," she said.

The new guidance also says that vaccinated individuals don't need to quarantine or get tested if they come in contact with someone positive for COVID-19 and don't have any symptoms.

But in public, even people who have received the COVID-19 vaccine should continue to wear masks and maintain distance when in public, visiting with people at severe risk for COVID-19 disease who have not been vaccinated, or when socializing with groups of unvaccinated people from multiple households, even if they are at low risk of disease.

The CDC says people who have been vaccinated should still avoid gathering in larger groups and should get tested if they show any symptoms of COVID-19.

"We know that people want to get vaccinated so they can get back to doing the things they enjoy with the people they love," Walensky, said in an earlier news release.

Stephanie Ebbs. “Fully vaccinated individuals can socialize without masks, distancing, CDC says.” ABC News. March 08, 2021.)