The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention says people who are fully vaccinated do not need to wear a mask when they’re outdoors unless they’re in a crowd, such as attending a live performance, sporting event or parade. People are considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the second dose of the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or two weeks after the single dose of the Johnson & Johnson shot.
“If you are vaccinated, things are much safer for you,” CDC Director Rochelle Walensky said Tuesday at a White House briefing. “If you are fully vaccinated and want to attend a small outdoor gathering — with people who are vaccinated and unvaccinated — or dine at an outdoor restaurant with friends from multiple households, the science shows you can do so safely, unmasked.”
As part of the new guidance, the agency spelled out settings in which it’s OK for fully vaccinated people to be unmasked, including:
Attending a small outdoor gathering with a mixture of fully vaccinated and unvaccinated people;
Dining at an outdoor restaurant with friends from multiple households.
And, the risk is low enough that even unvaccinated people can exercise, bike and hike outside and attend small outdoor gatherings with fully vaccinated friends and family without wearing a mask.
“We continue to recommend masking in crowded outdoor settings and venues such as packed stadiums and concerts where there is decreased ability to maintain physical distance and where many unvaccinated people may also be present,” Walensky said. “We will continue to recommend this until widespread vaccination is achieved.”
The new guidance “shows just how powerful these vaccines are in our efforts to end this pandemic,” she said.
In a brief appearance on the White House lawn after the CDC announcement, President Biden said that for those who haven’t been vaccinated, or feel they don’t need to be, “this is another great reason to go get vaccinated now.”
“While we still have a long way to go in this fight,” he said, “we’ve made stunning progress because of all of you, the American people. Cases and deaths are down, down dramatically from where they were when I took office [on] Jan. 20 and continuing to fall.”
The CDC says COVID-19 vaccines are effective at protecting against illness but urges people to continue to take precautions since officials are still learning how well the vaccines work to curb the spread of the virus.
