The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has announced that fully vaccinated Americans can return to some sense of normalcy. People are considered protected two weeks after they take the final dose of their vaccine, the CDC said.
Those who have received the required jabs can visit with other vaccinated people and some unvaccinated people, according to the new guidelines.
The recommendations say fully vaccinated Americans can:
- Meet indoors with other fully vaccinated people without masks or social distancing
- Meet indoors with unvaccinated people from a single household, if they are at low risk for severe illness from the virus
- Skip testing or quarantine when exposed to Covid-19, unless symptoms appear
But they should continue to:
- Avoid non-essential travel and large crowds
- Continue to wear face coverings and maintain social distancing in public
The CDC said there was still a risk vaccinated people could spread the disease to the unvaccinated, as data on this remains sparse. The new guidelines in particular call for mask wearing and distancing from those who are unvaccinated and may be at an elevated risk of serious Covid-related complications.
The US has seen a recent uptick in the number of inoculations per day. Over 90 million vaccines have been administered to date. The approval of a third vaccine, Johnson & Johnson's single-dose jab, to join the Moderna and Pfizer-BioNTech versions, has also helped boost supply.
But health officials warn that Covid-19 is still a serious concern.
"Over 90% of the population still has not been vaccinated," CDC Director Dr Rochelle Walensky said. "Our responsibility is to make sure, in the context of 60,000 new cases a day, that we protect those who are vulnerable."
The US has reported over 29 million virus cases and 525,000 deaths.