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WASHINGTON – People who have been fully vaccinated against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) can gather without masks indoors in small groups with other people who have been inoculated, but should avoid nonessential travel and continue to cover their faces in public. The Biden administration said Monday.
In a long-awaited update to its guide on behaviors to prevent the spread of coronavirus, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that fully vaccinated people could also meet in small groups with non-vaccinated people. vaccinated considered to be of low risk of suffering serious diseases COVID-19 from another home without masks.
The slight lifting of restrictions represented a still cautious approach to public health guidance despite the rapid growth in the number of people vaccinated. President Joseph R. Biden has urged Americans to remain vigilant and continue to follow CDC guidelines to avoid another surge in cases.
The CDC said that fully vaccinated people should continue to take many precautions, such as avoiding large in-person gatherings, wearing masks when visiting unvaccinated people from various households, or wearing masks when with people at risk for severe COVID-19.
CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters that it was important to protect those who have not been vaccinated and remain vulnerable, while about 60,000 new cases of coronavirus occur each day.
“We are still in the middle of a severe pandemic and even more than 90 percent of our population is not fully vaccinated,” he said. “Therefore, everyone, whether vaccinated or not, should continue to avoid large and medium-sized gatherings, as well as non-essential travel.”
More than 525,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States. Biden, who took office on January 20, has encouraged Americans to wear masks during his first 100 days as president, a contrast to the approach of former President Donald Trump, who downplayed the pandemic and avoided masks. Some states have begun to lift restrictions on a large scale.
Many Americans eager to return to their pre-pandemic lifestyle see vaccines as a way to do so. Businesses, particularly in the travel and hospitality industry, expect a growing number of vaccinated people to feel comfortable flying and dining out again.
‘AN IMPORTANT FIRST STEP’
The new guidelines address how vaccinated people can safely resume some more normal activities and contacts with people outside their homes while the coronavirus is still widely circulating, but they didn’t represent a big change.
“Today’s action represents an important first step. It is not our final destination, ”said Ms. Walensky. “As more people get vaccinated, COVID-19 infection levels decline in communities, and as our understanding of immunity to COVID increases, we look forward to updating these recommendations to the public.”
The recommendations come when approximately 30 million people, or 9.2% of the U.S. population, have been fully inoculated with COVID-19 vaccines manufactured by Pfizer, Inc./BioNTech SE, Moderna, Inc. and Johnson & Johnson, according to CDC data.
Almost 18% of the U.S. population, or 58.9 million adults, had received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine.
The new guidelines were “reasonable and quite appropriate,” said Carlos del Rio, executive associate dean at Emory School of Medicine. “We need to start telling people what to do, and on that, the guidelines are pretty clear.”
Currently licensed COVID-19 vaccines prevent people from getting sick, but not necessarily from becoming infected. Data on whether vaccinated people can still transmit the virus to unprotected people is scarce, and Ms Walensky cautioned that the risk of vaccinated people spreading the disease persists.
Last month, the CDC said vaccinated people could skip the standard 14-day quarantine after exposure to someone with COVID-19, as long as they remain asymptomatic. – Reuters
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