It’s been a waiting game for those Americans who are fully vaccinated to get clear guidance on how it will change their lives and behavior.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has now released its recommendations for the fully vaccinated:
- They can gather indoors with those who are also fully vaccinated without wearing a mask or social distancing
-They do not need to quarantine or be tested if they’re exposed to the coronavirus, as long as they don’t have symptoms.
- They can visit indoors with a single household of people who are not vaccinated, if those people are considered to be at low risk of serious disease, without wearing a mask or maintaining social distance.
People are considered to be "fully vaccinated" two weeks after they receive the second shot, as it takes some time for the body to build up immunity.
“The sooner we move to telling people if you’re fully vaccinated, you don’t have to wear masks, that will be an incentive for people to get vaccinated,” Peter Hotez, co-director of the Texas Children’s Center for Vaccine Development told The Washington Post.
However, people who are fully vaccinated must still take precautions in certain scenarios:
- Fully vaccinated people must continue to wear a mask and keep a physical distance around those who are not vaccinated or at a higher risk for COVID-19.
- Fully vaccinated people must also wear a mask and keep a distance when around unvaccinated people from multiple households.
The CDC guidelines say that although there’s less risk at the gym or restaurants for fully vaccinated people, they should continue to take precautions as these areas have higher chances of having non-vaccinated people.
According to CNN, there are now 30 million people in the United States who are fully vaccinated.