(CelebrityAccess) — In a sign of the hopeful return to at least a semblance of normality of pre-pandemic life, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced that it is relaxing its guidance on masks, allowing vaccinated people to stop wearing them in crowds or indoors in most situations.
“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities, large or small, without wearing a mask or physical distancing,” CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky told reporters at a press conference on Thursday “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic. We have all longed for this moment, when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”
However, the guidance still recommends that people, even the vaccinated, masks in certain situations, such as in a health care setting, or when at a business that requires they be worn. Fully vaccinated people should also continue wearing masks on airplanes, buses, trains and other public transportation, Dr. Walensky said.
“Anyone who is fully vaccinated can participate in indoor and outdoor activities – large or small — without wearing a mask or physically distancing,” Walensky said. “If you are fully vaccinated, you can start doing the things that you had stopped doing because of the pandemic.”
The change comes just two weeks after the CDC recommended that fully vaccinated people continue to ask up in all indoor settings and when in large outdoor crowds.
Walensky underscored that the guidance is only for the vaccinated and she said unvaccinated people should still wear masks as they run the risk of contracting COVID-19 and spreading it to other people.
