Fully vaccinated Bartholomew County residents may gather with other vaccinated people indoors without wearing a mask or social distancing, according to long-awaited guidance from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The recommendations, announced Monday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, also say that vaccinated people can come together in the same way — in a single household — with people considered at low-risk for severe disease, such as in the case of vaccinated grandparents visiting healthy children and grandchildren, The Associated Press reported.
The guidance is designed to address a growing demand, as more adults have been getting vaccinated and wondering if it gives them greater freedom to visit family members, travel, or do other things like they did before the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world last year.
Locally, Dr. Brian Niedbalski, Bartholomew County health officer, said he “fully supports” the CDC recommendations, but is still urging people to take precautions, including avoiding medium to large gatherings.
“This shows that we are taking steps to return to normalcy, which is a good thing,” Niedbalski said. “We still need to take precautions, like wearing masks and following social distancing recommendations, when going out in public places. We also need to continue to be cautious to avoid medium to large gatherings, even if vaccinated. There is still a high level of community spread and vaccination does not provide 100% protection.”
During a press briefing Monday, CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky called the guidance a “first step” toward restoring normalcy in how people come together, according to wire reports. She said more activities would get the green light for vaccinated individuals once caseloads and deaths decline, more Americans are vaccinated, and as more science emerges on the ability of those who have been vaccinated to get and spread the virus.
“With more and more people vaccinated each day, we are starting to turn a corner,” Walensky said.
The CDC is continuing to recommend that fully vaccinated people still wear well-fitted masks, avoid large gatherings, and physically distance themselves from others when out in public, according to wire reports. The CDC also advised vaccinated people to get tested if they develop symptoms that could be related to COVID-19.
The guidance was “welcome news to a nation that is understandably tired of the pandemic and longs to safely resume normal activities,” said Dr. Richard Besser, president and CEO of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and a former acting director of the CDC.
“I hope that this new guidance provides the momentum for everyone to get vaccinated when they can and gives states the patience to follow the public health roadmap needed to reopen their economies and communities safely,” said Besser, in a statement.
But Dr. Leana Wen called the guidance “far too cautious.”
The CDC did not change its recommendations on travel, which discourages unnecessary travel and calls for getting tested within a few days of the trip. That could seem confusing to vaccinated people hoping to visit family across the country or abroad.
The new guidance also says nothing about going to restaurants or other places, even though governors are lifting restrictions on businesses, said Wen, an emergency physician and public health professor at George Washington University who was formerly Baltimore’s health commissioner.
“The CDC is missing a major opportunity to tie vaccination status with reopening guidance. By coming out with such limited guidance, they are missing the window to influence state and national policy,” Wen said, in an email.
The CDC guidance did not speak to people who may have gained some level of immunity from being infected, and recovering from, the coronavirus.
Officials say a person is considered fully vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last required dose of vaccine. About 31 million Americans — or only about 9% of the U.S. population — have been fully vaccinated with a federally authorized COVID-19 vaccine so far, according to the CDC.
As of Monday morning, at least 14,396 Bartholomew County residents had received one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine, or about 17.1% of the county’s population, according to the Indiana State Department of Health.
Additionally, at least 9,038 Bartholomew County residents were considered fully vaccinated as of Monday morning, or 10.7% of the county’s population.
