CDC Now Says Vaccinated People can Safely Gather Indoors without Masks

the staff of the Ridgewood blog

Ridgewood NJ, new guidelines from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggest it is safe for fully vaccinated people to gather indoors with each other without masks. “If you and a friend, or you and a family member are both vaccinated, you can have dinner together” without wearing masks or without distancing, CDC Director Rochelle Walensky told reporters on Monday.

In addition, vaccinated people can visit with someone in a single household who is unvaccinated, without protections. The CDC said Americans are considered ,“fully vaccinated” once two weeks have passed since they received the final dose of their vaccine regimen. For 2 shot vaccines developed by Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech group, that means the second of two shots. For the recently authorized Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it means two weeks after the only injection.

The CDC also recommends vaccinated individuals can “refrain” from quarantining and testing if they come into contact with someone with COVID-19 and do not develop symptoms.

Walensky noted that only a small percentage of the public has been vaccinated, so precautions need to be taken in public or around people who are vulnerable to severe illness. “While the new guidance is a positive step, many more people need to be fully vaccinated before everyone can stop taking most COVID-19 precautions. It is important that, until then, everyone continues to adhere to important mitigation measures to protect the large number of people who remain unvaccinated,” Walensky said.
Walensky said there is a “small risk” that vaccinated people could become infected with milder or asymptomatic disease, and potentially transmit the virus to others who are not vaccinated.

COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting you from getting sick. Based on what we know about COVID-19 vaccines, people who have been fully vaccinated can start to do some things that they had stopped doing because of the pandemic.

If you’ve been fully vaccinated, you can:

Gather indoors with fully vaccinated people without wearing a mask.

Gather indoors with unvaccinated people from one other household without masks, unless any of those people or anyone they live with is at increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

In public you should still wear a mask, stay at least 6 feet apart from others, and avoid crowds and poorly ventilated spaces