Vaccinated? CDC Updates Post-COVID Vaccine Recommendations

If you’ve had one of the three coronavirus vaccines, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has some good news for you: You can get together with small groups of other people who have been fully vaccinated and ditch some precautions. That’s right: No mask, no social distancing.

These new guidelines, released March 8, are only for people who have been fully vaccinated (2 weeks after your second dose of either the Pfizer or Moderna vaccine; and two weeks after a single-dose Johnson & Johnson vaccine) and only for small groups, the agency emphasized. When you are out in the general public, you should use normal precautions like social distancing and masking.

If you’ve been fully vaccinated, the CDC says you can:

• gather indoors with other fully vaccinated people without having to wear a mask.
• gather indoors with unvaccinated people who live together as a household without having to wear a mask, unless one of those individuals (or anyone who lives with them) has an increased risk for severe illness from COVID-19.

Once fully vaccinated, if you are around someone who has COVID-19, you do not have to quarantine or get tested unless you start exhibiting symptoms. The exception: if you live in a group facility such as a retirement home, the CDC says you come in contact with someone with COVID-19, you should from quarantine for 14 days and get tested, regardless of having symptoms.

And of course, the CDC still maintains some of their recommendations. If you’ve been fully vaccinated, the CDC still advises that you should:

• continue protecting yourself by wearing a mask, social distancing, avoiding crowds and limiting your time in poorly ventilated spaces when you are in public or with unvaccinated people or gathering with people from more than one household or are with someone who is (or lives with an) unvaccinated person and is at high risk for serious COVID-19 complications.
• delay travel plans. If you must travel, please follow CDC for the latest requirements and recommendations.
• be on guard for COVID-19 symptoms, especially if you’ve been around someone who is sick. If you have symptoms of COVID-19, get tested, stay home and self-isolate, even if you’re fully vaccinated.
• Follow CDC guidelines while at work.