(RxWiki News) Fully vaccinated against COVID-19? Your life may soon be (mostly) back to normal.
That's the takeaway from new guidance the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently released. Put simply, if you are fully vaccinated, you can more or less resume the activities you did before the pandemic, the CDC said.
Keep in mind, however, that you are not considered to be fully vaccinated until two weeks after the second dose for the two-dose vaccines or two weeks after the only dose for the one-dose vaccine.
The CDC noted that vaccines are effective at preventing COVID-19 and severe illness or death from COVID-19. And those who are vaccinated appear to be less likely to spread the virus. Still, the CDC is monitoring how effective vaccines are against COVID-19 variants and how long protection from vaccines will last.
Below, we discuss what this new guidance means for fully vaccinated people. Keep in mind that this guidance may be different for people with certain health conditions or who work in certain environments. Reach out to your health care provider with any questions.
Masks and Social Distancing
In general, if you are fully vaccinated, you no longer have to wear a mask or socially distance in public, the CDC noted. This is true even if some of the people around you are not vaccinated. But you still must wear a mask on public transportation like buses and planes and inside transport hubs like train stations and airports.
Additionally, if you are around someone with COVID-19, you no longer have to self-isolate or get tested for COVID-19 unless you have symptoms.
Travel
Those who are fully vaccinated will face a lot fewer travel-related restrictions. According to the CDC, fully vaccinated people can travel within the US without getting tested beforehand or self-isolating afterward.
For international travel, you don't have to get tested before leaving the US unless the country you are traveling to requires you to do so. However, before boarding a plane to the US, you will need to show that you have received a negative COVID-19 test result or have recovered from the illness.
The CDC still recommends getting tested for COVID-19 three to five days after you travel internationally, but you do not have to self-quarantine after you return to the US.
Observing Local Rules
All of these relaxed rules from the CDC are meant to be general rules that do not cancel out existing rules from local and state governments or individual businesses. Businesses and government organizations can still make their own mask and social distancing rules, the CDC noted.
If you have questions about the COVID-19 vaccine and whether normal activities are safe for you, reach out to your health care provider.
