As the number of vaccinated people continues to rise, the Center for Disease Control and Prevention announced on Thursday that fully vaccinated people can stop wearing masks inside most places.
According to the Associated Press, during a White House press briefing on Thursday, CDC director Dr. Rochelle Walensky shared that fully vaccinated people, or people who have passed two weeks since receiving either the Johnson and Johnson vaccine or the second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, are no longer recommended to wear masks in workplaces, schools and other non-crowded venues.
“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing,” Walensky announced.
“If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” she added.
The CDC website elaborated on the updated regulations noting that “fully vaccinated people no longer need to wear a mask or physically distance in any setting, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance.”
Fully vaccinated people are also allowed to “Resume domestic travel and refrain from testing before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel,” the CDC website says.
The government agency will continue to recommend, however, that fully vaccinated people wear masks in crowded spaces, including public transit vehicles, planes, prisons, and homeless shelters, the AP reports.
These updated guidelines come as COVID-19 cases have fallen to a new low since the pandemic started. As Christian Headlines previously reported, in April 2020, just as the pandemic began, the rate of positive COVID-19 tests across the U.S. was nearly 23 percent. As of May 2021, that same number is just 3.4 percent.
Further, at the time of this writing, 118 million people, or nearly 36 percent of the U.S. population, are fully vaccinated. At least 45 percent of the population has received at least one dose, the Center for American Progress reports.
Related:
Report: Positive Coronavirus Tests Drop to New Low
President Biden Hopes to Have 70 Percent of American Adults Vaccinated by July 4
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Kayla Koslosky is the former Editor of ChristianHeadlines.com. She has B.A. degrees in English and History and previously wrote for and was the managing editor of the Yellow Jacket newspaper. She has also contributed to IBelieve.com and Crosswalk.com.