CDC says fully vaccinated Americans can spend time together indoors and unmasked

WASHINGTON — People who have been fully vaccinated against Covid-19 can now spend time together indoors and unmasked, according to new Biden administration guidance.

Fully immunized Americans can also visit with low-risk individuals from other households even if they haven’t yet received a vaccine. And if vaccinated individuals are exposed to Covid-19, there’s no need to either quarantine or get tested for the disease, according to new recommendations released Monday from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

“We know that people want to get vaccinated so they can get back to doing the things they enjoy with the people they love,” Rochelle Walensky, the CDC director, said in prepared remarks. “There are some activities that fully vaccinated people can begin to resume now in the privacy of their own homes. Everyone — even those who are vaccinated — should continue with all mitigation strategies when in public settings.”

The CDC considers Americans “fully vaccinated” once two weeks have passed since they received the final dose of their vaccine regimen. In the case of vaccines developed by Moderna and the Pfizer-BioNTech partnership, which have been authorized for emergency use since December, that means the second of two shots. For the recently authorized Johnson & Johnson vaccine, it means two weeks after a single injection.

Roughly 31 million Americans, or 9.2% of the population, are fully vaccinated, Walensky estimated. But the country’s ongoing vaccination campaign means that number will soon spike. The country is administering over 2 million vaccine doses per day, on average, and President Biden last week promised that the country would have enough supply to vaccinate any adult who wants a vaccine by the end of May.