What to know
- Pennsylvania facilitates its mask mandate to allow people who have been fully vaccinated against the coronavirus to get along with other vaccinated without masks or social distance.
- State health officials said Monday the new rules also apply to people who are vaccinated with people from one household who are not vaccinated but who consider the low risk for serious coronavirus diseases, such as vaccinated grandparents who visit with healthy grandchildren.
- Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam has revised the state’s existing masking order to conform to recent guidance from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
Pennsylvania has eased its mask mandate to allow people who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 to meet with other vaccines without masks or social distance, state health officials said Monday.
The new rules also apply to vaccines that are collected in people from one household who have not been vaccinated, but who consider the low risk of serious diseases due to the coronavirus – such as vaccinated grandparents who visit healthy grandchildren.
Vaccines also no longer need to be quarantined after exposure to someone with COVID-19, as long as they do not develop symptoms, state health officials said.
Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam has revised the state’s existing masking order to conform to recent guidance from U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“Research has shown that people who are fully vaccinated are less likely to have asymptomatic infection and that they are more likely to spread the virus that causes COVID-19 to others,” Beam said. ‘However, there is still more to learn about how long protection lasts and how many vaccines are protected against new variants of the virus, so there will still be preventative measures in place for all people, regardless of their vaccination status. ”
The state said vaccinated people should continue to wear masks and social distance in public, and when visited by people in multiple households or by those at higher risk for serious illnesses due to COVID-19.
All other aspects of the current masking order of the state remain in force.
Pennsylvania sharpened its mask mandate in November in response to an increase in coronavirus cases. The state needed masks indoors where people from different households gather, including in private homes, although officials relied on voluntary compliance rather than enforcement.
Pennsylvania saw a sharp decline in cases, hospitalizations and deaths after a winter peak, but the cases increased again – from about 2,500 a day two weeks ago to 2,900 a day this weekend. The decline in hospitalizations has come to a halt, government officials said.
The state is approaching 1 million confirmed cases of the coronavirus, and nearly 24,800 deaths are attributed to COVID-19.