CDC gives new mask guidance for outdoors and indoors

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) updated its guidance for fully vaccinated individuals, noting that those who have received both shots of an approved COVID-19 vaccine no longer need to wear a facial mask outdoors, aside from in select crowded areas.

Guidelines for vaccinated individuals will also be updated and expanded based on regions’ levels of community spread. 

Applicable vaccines include the Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna and Johnson and Johnson, along with those approved by the World Health Organization (WHO), which is the AstraZeneca vaccine.

In addition to going maskless while exercising, fully vaccinated people can also:

• Visit with other fully vaccinated individuals indoors without masks or social distancing
• Participate in outdoor activities without a mask, aside from crowded venues
• Resume domestic travel without having to test before or after travel, or self-quarantine following travel
• No longer get tested if asymptomatic
• Refrain from quarantine if exposed
• Refrain from testing before leaving the U.S. for international travel (unless required by the destination country) and no longer need to quarantine following travel

Despite these updates, fully vaccinated people are still required to take precautions in most public settings by wearing a mask, especially when around people who have yet to be vaccinated. Avoiding large indoor gatherings with unvaccinated people from multiple households is still recommended. 

This comes as national data estimates more than 232 million people in the U.S have been vaccinated. 

CDC officials still note that immunity against COVID-19 is still relatively unknown, but that those with a full vaccination are less likely to transmit the virus asymptomatically.

“Until more is known and vaccination coverage increases, some prevention measures will continue to be necessary in some settings for all people, regardless of vaccination status,” the guidance reads. “However, the benefits of reducing social isolation and relaxing some measures such as quarantine requirements may outweigh the residual risk of fully vaccinated people becoming ill with COVID-19 or transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to others.”

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