<< Back

CDC: Fully Vaccinated Can Now Gather Indoors Without Masks, Distancing

March 08, 2021

The benefits of the fully vaccinated became even more vivid Monday as the The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention issued guidance allowing maskless gatherings indoors without social distancing as long as the gatherings exclude the unvaccinated.

An exception, CDC Directory Rochelle Walensky announced at a White House COVID-19 briefing, would allow the fully vaccinated indoor visits with unvaccinated people from single households considered at low risk. That would enable, for instance, grandparents who had avoided seeing children and grandchildren in the past year to reunite without masks or social distancing. The single-household rule, however, would recommend the gathering move outdoors, with everyone wearing masks and social distancing, if unvaccinated friends or neighbors join.

Here’s the new can-do guidance for fully vaccinated Americans:

• Visit indoors with other fully vaccinated people without masks or physical distancing.
• Visit indoors, no masks or physical distancing, with low-risk members of a single household.
• Avoid quarantine or testing after a known exposure to COVID-19.

If you’re fully vaccinated, which means at least two weeks have passed since the final dose of your inoculation, the CDC still  recommends masks and social distancing in public. Other precautions include avoiding medium and large gatherings, though the CDC did not offer specific numbers.

Connecticut’s COVID-19 test positivity rate, at 1.84 percent Friday, and declining hospitalizations have contributed to the state’s brightening outlook.

“Connecticut has done a very good job in masking,” says Keith Grant, Hartford HealthCare’s Senior System Director of Infection Prevention., “but we need to continue to do more to protect our loved ones. The vaccines are effective and safe.”