Americans who are fully vaccinated against COVID-19 no longer need to wear face masks or practice social distancing indoors — regardless of gathering size or setting, federal public health officials announced Thursday in the most significant relaxation of coronavirus precautions since the pandemic hit.
The new guidelines, rolled out by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, pave the way for businesses, schools, restaurants, venues and other establishments to fully reopen their doors without any public health restrictions for the first time since February 2020 after one of the darkest years in U.S. history.
Mask usage also isn’t necessary in outdoor settings for fully vaccinated individuals, according to the updated CDC recommendations.
Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, said the major rollback is possible because of a steady uptick in vaccinations, combined with plummeting COVID-19 infection and death rates.
“If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic,” Walensky told reporters on a conference call. “We have all longed for this moment when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”
Why today? The science hasn’t changed.
— Sen. Marsha Blackburn (@MarshaBlackburn) May 13, 2021
The only scenarios where masks and social distancing will still be required for fully vaccinated individuals are certain indoor settings like public transit, airplanes and hospitals, according to the CDC guidelines, though Walensky suggested relaxations may be forthcoming in some of those areas as well.
Immunocompromised individuals should consult with their doctors before ditching their masks, Walensky noted.
The CDC considers an individual to be fully vaccinated against COVID-19 two weeks after receiving their final shot.
The latest CDC update comes just two weeks after the agency revised its guidance to say fully vaccinated individuals could ditch their masks in outdoor settings while still keeping them on inside.
Leading up to Thursday’s announcement, the CDC faced pressure to also relax its indoor guidance, with some public health experts questioning the necessity of the distinction.
Walensky said the relaxation on indoor masks was only motivated by science and noted that this week’s authorization to administer the Pfizer coronavirus vaccine to children age 12 to 15 played a role.
“The science demonstrates that if you are fully vaccinated, you are protected,” she said.
President Biden was expected to deliver remarks at the White House on the new mask recommendations Thursday afternoon.
The new guidelines come as the Biden administration is on track to meet its goal of administering at least one coronavirus vaccine dose to 70% of U.S. adults by July 4.
As of Thursday, nearly 59% of the adult population had received at least one shot and the COVID-19 death rate was at its lowest point since April 2020.
The pandemic progress is being made in spite of the fact that the pace of vaccinations in the U.S. has slowed down significantly in the past few weeks amid persistent hesitancy among certain demographics, including registered Republicans.
Walensky stressed on the conference call that un-vaccinated individuals still need to wear masks and practice social distancing in most indoor and outdoor settings.
“You remain at risk of mild or severe illness, of death, or spreading the disease to others,” she said. “You should still mask, and you should get vaccinated right away.”
©2021 New York Daily News. Visit nydailynews.com. Distributed by Tribune Content Agency, LLC.
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No more mask for stylin Joe to flamboyantly rip off his face as he strides through hundreds of yards of unoccupied turf? If truth be known, he’ll gladly strap on Obama’s colostomy bag over his face to maintain his inspiration and marching orders.
I am shocked they are NOT ALL staying masked up. JUST TO keep up the hysteria.
No surprise—I actually thought this would have happened sooner after Trump left office. But they certainly played it to the hilt, didn’t they? Of course, this doesn’t mean that blue state governors will necessarily comply.
IF anything, they will double down on stupidity.
next week Covid will be gone as the Flu has been eradicated since Covid took over. Go Democraps.
isn’t it funny that a few days ago, Kamala and her husband both had masks on and they kissed each other with their masks on, even though both of them had been vaccinated. “Follow the science” of fraud perpetrated on the American people, by the CDC, Fauci and the Biden Administration aka the mask dictators.
I wonder, where has all the chat gone, about mandating vaccine passports?
Oh no, how will the democraps virtue signal and show compliance to their communist masters now? My guess, we will see them wearing their face diapers everywhere.
Next step in the Marxist Communists march for total control will be—–“show me your vaccination card before you can enter.” RESIST AMERICA!!!!
This might open up the public to murder, as you cannot go to jail without your vaccination card. 😛
WHERE are all the calls for vaccine ID’s to be racist, since “POO BLACKS are too stooppiid to get ids!”
So where’s the REQUIREMENT to have your vaccination card dangling from a chain around your neck? What’s the sense in having a card if everyone just keeps it hidden in purse or wallet?
/s
DONT you dare give them that suggestion..
I find the declaration gratuitous Dem Party flim-flam.
“IF vaccinated” is the key statement that limits your God given freedom to breathe freely without requiring permission from self anointed dictators, aka diks, on how, when & where you may do so.
All forms of public transportation still require masks, vaccinated or or not.
And, don’t know about rest of you but I didn’t see any news of businesses, grocery / dept stores, banks, doctor offices or govt offices taking down their “masks required to enter” signs.
So, nothing has really changed, we are still being suffocated & forced to dance like puppets to the tune of our Corp, tech, media & Dem Party tyrants.
Are we now going to have to demand laws to force businesses to stop requiring masks & spend years in litigation to enforce them?
GOOD POINT. WHEN are we going to start seeing stores and such, REMOVE THOSE damnable signs? IF at all.
It doesn’t require a law. I already demand that businesses not force me to wear a mask. I have completely refused the whole time regardless what the governor says. Any business who demands I wear a mask is on the permanent boycott list. It is currently a long list, but I am working on replacing practically every business in my life with a more patriotic vendor. As Americans we really have more power than we think we have and more than we tend to wield. We need to use our power for the good of our country and our fellow citizens and stop waiting for politicians to “do something”.
As per tonight’s local news, Dewhiner, has said “mask mandates in ohio’ are gone. BUT some stores are still keeping them (HOMODEPOT, Giant eagle, and a few others).. Guess they don’t want my business..
Never wore a mask during the so called pandemic and will never wear one ever sorry folks you all got scammed by China , Bill gates, and Fauci !
Smart, I worked in a clinic face to face up until December and never wore a mask, never tested positive, never got sick and will never take that poison that they are pushing in the name of Faux Science!! This is the biggest scam and fleecing of the American Public and the people who were vaccinated have not seen anything yet to come when an actual COVID virus breakout occurs!! SARS was a COVID virus and I was in the healthcare field for 30 years during this outbreak no mask, no shut downs no nothing!
This should have been obvious a long time ago. That was the purpose of getting the vaccines in the first place. Too bad things like politics, craving for power, public deification, etc. got in the way.
Just more carrot dangling of our freedom to try and get people to inject an unproven, inadequately tested, rushed to market, never before approved for or used on humans experimental product into their bodies.
How is it possible that states which lifted their mask requirements weeks or months ago for people with or without the “vaccine” (if you want to call it that) did not see any rise in infection rates in either the vaccinated or non vaccinacted population and why would masks be needed to be worn by anyone if as they would like you to believe getting the “vaccine” prevents you from both getting or transmitting the virus?
In 1918 the Spanish flu hit, killing 50 million people, approximatele 675,000 in the US. (way more than Covid). It lasted 1-2 years and was gone WITHOUT a vaccine which only serves to illustrate how this administration is using the current situation to garner power, control, and profit, by instilling fear through lies and misinformation and pushing by every means possible for people to line up like sheep for this and remain scared and obedient while they convert this country to an unrecognizable Marxist regime.
AND iirc, during that spanish flu. NO ONE GOT LOCKED DOWN In their own homes statewide. NO one was mandated to wear masks when outside..
What I haven’t heard anybody talk about is exactly how are they going to know who is and who isn’t vaccinated? Can anybody say “vaccine passports”? They cannot legally, because of HIPPA laws, ask you about your medical status. So what exactly are they planning here? I will not be forced into this vaccine. You know the governments are never going to give up on this, don’t you?
I saw on today’s newsmax feed, that several folk, INCLUDING Dershowitz, feel if it comes down to it, the courts will find in FAVOR OF vaccine passports.. Which sickens me..