People who are fully vaccinated against the new coronavirus can gather privately in small groups without taking off masks or bodily distances, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it relaxes safety guidelines for vaccinated individuals under certain circumstances.
The CDC said Monday that people who are fully vaccinated should, in most circumstances, continue to take precautions to prevent the spread of the virus that causes Covid-19. People who have been fully vaccinated should continue to wear masks and keep their distance from others in public or visit dangerous people at high risk for serious cases of Covid-19, the CDC said.
It is possible that vaccines can still be infected by the virus and can transmit it to others who are at risk for serious diseases, say public health experts. But early research suggests that authorized vaccines, in addition to protecting against serious cases of Covid-19 that can lead to hospitalization or death, also make people less vulnerable to infection and possibly less likely to spread the virus, the CDC said.
“There are some activities that fully vaccinated people can now begin to resume in the privacy of their own homes,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said in a statement. “Everyone – even those who are vaccinated – should continue with all mitigation strategies if they are in the public sphere.”
The CDC has announced its guidelines for vaccinated people, as more than 90 million Covid-19 shots have been fired across the US, allowing vaccinated people to navigate life during the pandemic with the added protection against the virus. More than 17% of the U.S. population received at least one dose of Covid-19 vaccine, according to CDC data, and just over 9% of the population received two shots.