Fully vaccinated people can meet without masks: Biden government

People who have been fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can meet without masks indoors in smaller groups with others who have been vaccinated but should avoid unnecessary travel and continue to wear the face in public, Biden's government said on Monday. In a long-awaited update of its guidelines for behavior to prevent the spread of the coronavirus, the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) said that people who are fully vaccinated could also meet in small groups with individuals who do not be vaccinated. COVID-19 from another household without masks. The slight lifting of restrictions has been an increasingly cautious approach to public health education despite the rapidly growing number of vaccines. President Joe Biden has advised Americans to remain careful and proceed to follow CDC guidelines to prevent another increase in cases.

The CDC said that people who have been fully vaccinated should continue to take many precautions, such as avoiding large gatherings in person, wearing masks when visiting non-vaccinated people from multiple households, or wearing masks when people with the danger of severe COVID-19.

CDC director Rochelle Walensky told journalists it was essential to preserve those who had not yet been vaccinated and who were defenseless, with about 60,000 new cases of coronavirus occurring every day.

"We are living in the middle of a severe pandemic, and still more than 90 percent of our community is not fully immunized," she stated.

"Therefore, everyone, regardless of whether they are vaccinated, should continue to avoid medium and large gatherings as well as non-essential trips."

More than 525,000 people have died from COVID-19 in the United States. Biden, who took office on January 20, urged Americans to wear masks for the first 100 days as president, in contrast to the approach of former President Donald Trump, who underestimated the pandemic and averted masks. Some states have begun on a large scale to lift restrictions.

Many Americans eager to return to their pre-pandemic lifestyles see vaccinations as a way to do so. Businesses, especially in the travel and hospitality industry, are hopeful that a growing number of vaccinated people will feel comfortable flying and eating out again.

"A necessary first step"

The new guidelines deal with the way in which vaccinated people can resume more normal activities and contact with those outside their households while the coronavirus continues to spread widely, but this was not a major shift.

"Today's action is an important first step. It's not our final destination," Walensky said. "As more people are vaccinated, levels of COVID-19 infection in communities decrease, and as our understanding of COVID immunity increases, we look forward to updating these recommendations to the public."

The recommendations come because about 30 million people, or 9.2% of the U.S. population, are fully vaccinated with COVID-19 vaccine doses made by Pfizer Inc / BioNTech SE, Moderna Inc, and Johnson & Johnson, as per the to CDC data.

Nearly 18% of the U.S. population, or 58.9 million adults, have received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine.

The new guidelines were "reasonable and very appropriate," said Carlos del Rio, executive dean of the Emory School of Medicine. "We require to start advising people what to do, and in that, the guidelines are pretty obvious."

Currently, there are COVID-19 vaccines that prevent people from getting sick but not necessarily getting infected. The data on whether vaccinated people can still spread the virus among unprotected people is scarce, and Walensky warned that the risk of being vaccinated to spread the disease remained.

The CDC said last month that vaccinated individuals can jump the standard 14-day isolation after disclosure to someone with COVID-19, as long as they remain asymptomatic.