CDC says fully vaccinated people can now gather privately without safety guidelines, but must still take precaution around people who are unvaccinated or of high risk
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently announced that fully vaccinated people are allowed to gather privately in small groups without masks or physical distancing.
Fully vaccinated people are still expected to follow safety precautions, especially around people of high risk. Wearing a mask and physical distancing are still encouraged around others who have not yet been vaccinated.
A person is considered to be fully vaccinated two weeks after the second dose of the vaccine according to Pfizer Inc. and Moderna Inc. guidelines, Johnson & Johnson classifies fully vaccinated to be two weeks after the first dose.
According to the CDC, fully immune people should still watch out for symptoms of Covid-19. If symptoms of the virus are present, people should get tested and stay home and away from others.
“Anyone who is fully vaccinated, regardless of their underlying risk, can feel more confidence that they can avoid severe illness from Covid-19,” Ajay Sethi, an infectious disease epidemiologist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison told The Wall Street Journal. But, he said, “we have to recognize that some people can pick up the virus and transmit to others.”
As of Monday, 18.1% of the U.S. population received the first dose and 9.8% of the population is fully vaccinated.
According to healthline.com, 70%-90% of the population need to be immune, or fully vaccinated, against the virus in order to achieve herd immunity.
By the end of July, Pfizer and Moderna plan to distribute 600 million total doses of the vaccine to the US, enough to vaccinate 300 million people. Johnson & Johnson also plans to provide 100 million doses.
If their predictions are correct, there would be enough doses to vaccinate 330 million Americans, keeping in mind that the current population of the U.S. is 328 million.
Experts are still conservative on the timeline for a return to normalcy. Dr. Anthony Fauci told CNN’s Dana Bash that he does not want to provide a sense of false hope.
According to The Washington Post, Fauci did give a close inside to a possible timeline suggested by President Joe Biden that “we’ll be approaching normalcy by the end of this year, and God willing this Christmas will be different than last.”
To aid in the process of regaining normalcy, people should continue to follow mask and physical distancing guidelines. Fully vaccinated people should continue to minimize the spread by taking precautions around vulnerable people.
North Dakota is one of the top leading states in the percentage of fully vaccinated residents according to the CDC’s dashboard. Currently, 22.7% of North Dakota residents received one dose and 12% are fully vaccinated.
According to health.nd.gov, some vaccination sites across the state are moving into lower priority groups. North Dakota residents can look on health.nd.gov to see if vaccination sights near them are administering vaccines to the next phase of groups and/or call vaccination sights to ask about extra vaccines.