Got your COVID-19 vaccine? CDC recommends when/how to resume activities
March 8, 2021
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has issued its first set of recommendations on activities that people who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can resume safely.
A growing body of scientific evidence also suggests that fully vaccinated people are less likely to have asymptomatic infection and potentially are less likely to transmit SARS-CoV-2, the virus that causes COVID-19, to other people. Therefore, the CDC says fully vaccinated people safely can take fewer precautions in certain situations.
Specifically, the CDC’s guidance today recommends that fully vaccinated people can do the following:
- Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart.
- Visit with unvaccinated people from one other household indoors without wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart if everyone in the other household is at low risk for severe disease.
- Refrain from quarantine and testing if they do not have symptoms of COVID-19 after contact with someone who has the coronavirus.
A person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last required dose of vaccine. Although vaccinations are accelerating, the CDC estimates that 9 percent of the U.S. population has been fully vaccinated.
In South Dakota, that number is 16 percent.
While the new guidance is a positive step, the vast majority of people need to be fully vaccinated before COVID-19 precautions can be lifted broadly, the CDC said. Until then, it is important that everyone continues to adhere to public health mitigation measures to protect the large number of people who remain unvaccinated.
The agency recommends that fully vaccinated people continue to take these COVID-19 precautions when in public, when visiting with unvaccinated people from multiple other households, and when around unvaccinated people who are at high risk of getting severely ill from the virus:
- Wear a well-fitted mask.
- Stay at least 6 feet from people you do not live with.
- Avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings.
- Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms.
- Follow guidance issued by individual employers.
- Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations.
The CDC encourages people to get vaccinated with the first available FDA-authorized COVID-19 vaccine to protect themselves and to help bring the pandemic to a close. The currently authorized vaccines by the Food and Drug Administration are safe and highly effective at preventing serious COVID-19 illness, hospitalization and death.
The CDC has released resources to help people make informed decisions when they are fully vaccinated.
