Interim Public Health Recommendations for Fully Vaccinated People
New CDC Guidelines on Fully Vaccinated Individuals and Masks
This set of public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people will be updated and expanded based on the level of community spread of SARS-CoV-2, the proportion of the population that is fully vaccinated, and the rapidly evolving science on COVID-19 vaccines.
The new recommendations say fully vaccinated individuals can engage in the following activities without wearing masks:
- Walking, running, hiking, or biking outdoors alone or with members of their household
- Attending small outdoor gatherings with fully vaccinated family and friends
- Attending small outdoor gatherings with a mixture of fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people
- Dining at outdoor restaurants with friends from multiple households
Fully vaccinated people can also attend a crowded, outdoor event, like a live performance, parade, or sports event, as long as they remain masked, according to a CDC infographic of the new guidelines.
Fully vaccinated people can:
- Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing
- Visit with unvaccinated people (including children) from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing
- Participate in outdoor activities and recreation without a mask, except in certain crowded settings and venues
- Resume domestic travel and refrain from testing before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel
- Refrain from testing before leaving the United States for international travel (unless required by the destination) and refrain from self-quarantine after arriving back in the United States
- Refrain from testing following a known exposure, if asymptomatic, with some exceptions for specific settings
- Refrain from quarantine following a known exposure if asymptomatic
- Refrain from routine screening testing if asymptomatic and feasible
For now, fully vaccinated people should continue to:
- Take precautions in indoor public settings like wearing a well-fitted mask
- Wear well-fitted masks when visiting indoors with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease or who have an unvaccinated household member who is at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease
- Wear well-fitted masks when visiting indoors with unvaccinated people from multiple households
- Avoid indoor large-sized in-person gatherings
- Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms
- Follow guidance issued by individual employers
- Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations
Have You Been Fully Vaccinated?
In general, people are considered fully vaccinated:
- 2 weeks after their second dose in a 2-dose series, such as the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
- 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, such as Johnson & Johnson's Janssen vaccine
If you do not meet these requirements, you are NOT fully vaccinated. Keep taking all precautions until you are fully vaccinated.