During the White House COVID-19 Response Team press briefing, CDC director Rochelle Walensky, MD, highlighted the agency’s new guidelines. “A growing body of evidence now tells us that there are some activities that fully vaccinated people can resume at low risk to themselves,” she said. Per the CDC’s updated guidelines, fully vaccinated people can visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors, without wearing a mask or maintaining social distance. As Walensky clarified, a person is fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving their second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or the Johnson & Johnson shot. And for more vaccine updates, The CDC Just Warned of 3 New Vaccine Side Effects. But the CDC’s guidance allows for more flexibility than some health experts expected. Fully vaccinated people can also visit people who haven’t gotten the shot yet, provided the unvaccinated people are not high risk. “The CDC recommends that fully vaccinated people can visit with unvaccinated people from one other household—indoors, without wearing masks or physical distancing—as long as the unvaccinated people and any unvaccinated members of their household are not at high risk for severe COVID-19 disease,” Walensky explained. The CDC director gave 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. And for more vaccine guidance, Doctors Say Do These 2 Things the Morning of Your Vaccine Appointment. The third permission the CDC has granted fully vaccinated people is the ability to skip quarantine and testing in certain scenarios. In compliance with the new guidelines, fully vaccinated people can refrain from quarantining and testing if they come in contact with a known COVID case, as long as they remain asymptomatic. However, the CDC did not change the quarantine and testing requirements that come with travel, whether people are vaccinated or not. And for more up-to-date information, sign up for our daily newsletter.ae0fcc31ae342fd3a1346ebb1f342fcb Down the line, the guidance for vaccinated people will likely broaden. “It’s important to note that this is initial guidance,” Walensky noted. “The recommendations issued today are just a first step. As more people get vaccinated, and the science and evidence expands, and as the disease dynamics of this country change, we will continue to update this guidance.” And for more vaccine advice to follow, Don’t Do This the Night Before Your Vaccine Appointment, Experts Say.
