Covid-19: You Can Now Go Out Without Your Mask If Fully Vaccinated

• United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said people can now go out without their mask if fully vaccinated.

You Can Now Go Out Without Your Mask If Fully Vaccinated. This statement is from the United States Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

EkoHotBlog quotes Buzzfeed News as saying fully vaccinated people in America can now return to their normal life.

CDC Director, Rochelle Walensky in a White House press briefing, said “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”

This means fully vaccinated Americans can now ditch their masks and stop socially distancing in almost all indoor and outdoor settings.

Walensky described the new guidance as an “exciting and powerful moment.”

The CDC Director cited the data on the real-world effectiveness of the vaccines and their ability to protect against variants, the low risk of transmission to others, and universal access to vaccines for those 12 and older.

According to her, “We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy,” and “That moment has come for those who are fully vaccinated.”

BuzzFeed reports that the new guidance says that anyone who is fully vaccinated — and past the two-week mark from their last vaccine shot — can participate in large or small indoor and outdoor activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing.

CDC, however, issued a few exceptions to the guidance – fully vaccinated people should still wear masks while travelling on planes, buses, trains, and other public transport, and also at airports and stations in the US.

Also, healthcare settings such as hospitals and doctors’ officers as well as correctional facilities or homeless shelters, are exempted from the guidance.

Walensky, however, advised those who are immunocompromised to talk to their doctors before giving up their masks.

The guidelines also stated that people who are fully vaccinated should still wear masks where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.

Walensky, therefore, said the CDC will be updating its guidance about schools, businesses, and communities, adding that those decisions have to be made at the local level.

President Joe Biden while reacting to the development as a “great milestone,” said, “Today is a great day for America in our long battle with the coronavirus.”

Chief of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, Anthony Fauci, when asked if grocery stores, pharmacies, and other shops should let fully vaccinated people come in and shop without masks, said “absolutely,” adding “that’s the whole point.”

Fauci while responding if businesses should be asking customers if they’ve been vaccinated and if local and state governments should do away with mask mandates now, said,

“Since you can’t completely validate that someone’s vaccinated except depending upon them telling you that, if you drop the mask mandate, then you might have an increase in infection among those who are not vaccinated.” He added that “That’s not an easy decision to make.”

The revised guidelines come after mounting pressure on federal officials to ease COVID-19 restrictions.

Nevertheless, millions of eligible adults and all children under 12 are yet to be vaccinated. The vaccine access just opened up to young teens ages 12 to 15 on Wednesday.

Walensky, however, cautioned that the guidelines might change given to the unpredictability of the virus.

She said, “If things get worse, there is always a chance we may need to make changes to these recommendations.”