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The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed updated guidelines describing activities fully vaccinated people can safely resume on Tuesday. CDC Director Rochelle Walensky announced the highly anticipated guidance during a White House COVID-19 briefing Monday.
According to the CDC, People are considered fully vaccinated:
- 2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, such as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
- 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine
If you don’t meet these requirements, you are NOT fully vaccinated. Keep taking all precautions until you are fully vaccinated.
The new recommendations say fully vaccinated individuals can engage in the following activities without wearing masks:
- Walking, running, hiking or biking outdoors alone or with members of their household
- Attending small outdoor gatherings with fully vaccinated family and friends
- Attending small outdoor gatherings with a mixture of fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people
- Dining at outdoor restaurants with friends from multiple households.
The CDC still says vaccinated individuals should wear face masks in public, avoid large indoor gatherings, and discourages non-essential travel. If coronavirus symptoms present themselves, the CDC still recommends getting tested. If you are fully vaccinated and travel in the United States, you do not need to get tested before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel.
When traveling internationally once fully vaccinated:
- Pay close attention to the situation at your international destination before traveling outside the United States.
- You do not need to get tested before leaving the United States unless your destination requires it.
- You still need to show a negative test result or documentation of recovery from COVID-19 before boarding an international flight to the United States.
- You should still get tested 3-5 days after international travel.
- You do not need to self-quarantine after arriving in the United States.
If you’ve been around someone who has COVID-19 once fully vaccinated:
- You do not need to stay away from others or get tested unless you have symptoms.
- However, if you live in a group setting (like a correctional or detention facility or group home) and are around someone who has COVID-19, you should still stay away from others for 14 days and get tested, even if you don’t have symptoms.
“As more people get vaccinated, levels of COVID-19 infection decline in communities, and as our understanding of COVID immunity improves, we look forward to updating these recommendations to the public,” said Walensky.
