The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has announced Thursday that fully vaccinated Americans are now free to go maskless both indoors and out.
“Today is a great day for America,” President Joe Biden said during a Rose Garden address heralding the new guidance.
“If you are fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask," he said, summarizing the new guidance and encouraging more Americans to roll up their sleeves. “Get vaccinated — or wear a mask until you do.”
The new guidance still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters, but will help clear the way for reopening workplaces, schools, and other venues — even removing the need for masks or social distancing for those who are fully vaccinated.
The update comes just two weeks after the CDC announced it was safe for fully vaccinated people to stop wearing masks in most outdoor settings.
In an interview with CBS This morning Thursday, Fauci confirmed his belief that fully vaccinated people are free to roam outdoors without a mask.
“It would be a very unusual situation, if you were going into a completely crowded situation where people are essentially falling all over each other, then you wear a mask. But any other time, if you’re vaccinated and you’re outside, put aside your mask. You don’t have to wear it.”
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, announced the new guidance on Thursday afternoon at a White House briefing, saying the long-awaited change is thanks to millions of people getting vaccinated -- and based on the latest science about how well those shots are working.
“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities – large or small — without wearing a mask or physically distancing,” Walensky said. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”
People are considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines or after the single dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine, because it takes time for the immune system to respond to the shot.
While many state and local governments have followed CDC guidelines closely, governors and local leaders may choose to maintain stricter rules.
Associated Press contributed to this story.
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