New Updated Mask Guidelines for Vaccinated Americans from the CDC

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The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will reportedly announce updated guidelines for fully vaccinated Americans on Tuesday. Multiple federal officials have confirmed that the Biden administration will release new updated public health recommendations. It will provide guidelines for activities that vaccinated people may resume, including recommendations related to health care settings and whether to wear masks outdoors. We were still unable to get the full details of the new guidance. The Chief medical adviser to President Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci said, “I can again safely say that really, really soon we’re going to be seeing some guidelines that are going to be coming out from the CDC about the wearing of masks and vaccinated versus unvaccinated individuals”. He delivered his words on Monday at a virtual event hosted by the Harvard Chan School of Public Health.

Dr. Fauci added, “The risk of infection outside is really minimum, if you’re vaccinated, and you’re outside, it’s even less. Current CDC guidance acknowledges masks may not be necessary when you are outside by yourself away from others, or with people who live in your household”. He also advised individuals to abide by any mask mandates in their local area while out in public, as well as any relevant federal mask mandates. President Biden will make remarks on the current state of the pandemic on Tuesday. The White House COVID-19 Response Team is likely to have more information about the updated guidance at its press briefing, which will also be held on Tuesday. Point to be noted that researchers have repeatedly found that outdoor transmission makes up a small share of infections.

The CDC published research in March detailing a successful effort by one New Jersey school to curb COVID-19 outbreaks where meals and sports were held mostly outdoors. The agency also urged summer camps to plan for more activities outdoors whenever possible as one of a handful of key prevention strategies in updated guidance for camp counselors. Early research also suggests fully vaccinated people carry substantially fewer viruses in their body even in cases of rare breakthrough infections of COVID-19, which scientists suspect means the virus is less likely to spread to others. A recent CDC study said the examined Chicago-area nursing homes found most fully vaccinated staff and residents with breakthrough infections of COVID-19 had no symptoms, and none appeared to spread the disease to others.