For the Fully Vaccinated, Some Mask Restrictions Are Eased

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Pennsylvania’s Acting Secretary of Health Alison Beam announced on March 22 that some activities are now OK and low risk to those who are fully vaccinated.

People are fully vaccinated if it’s more than two weeks after they have received the second dose in a two-dose vaccination or more than two weeks after they have received a single-dose vaccine.

“The vaccines that are currently available across the state and country are highly effective at protecting vaccinated people against severe and symptomatic COVID-19,” Acting Secretary Beam said. “Research has shown that fully vaccinated people are less likely to have asymptomatic infection and potentially less likely to spread the virus that causes COVID-19 to others.”

According to the CDC, those who are fully vaccinated can:

  • Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing;
  • Visit with unvaccinated people from a single household indoors without wearing masks or social distancing, if the unvaccinated people are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease;
  • Refrain from quarantine or tests if they knowingly were exposed to someone infected with the coronavirus, as long as the fully vaccinated person shows no symptoms.

Beam did caution that there’s still a lot to learn about how long the vaccine protection lasts and how much the current vaccines protect against new variants of the virus.

Some prevention measures should continue, even for the fully vaccinated.

That means mask wearing and physical distancing in public places and businesses, and mask wearing and distancing if visiting unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for COVID-19 disease, or from multiple households.

They should also still avoid medium-and large-sized in-person gatherings and should be tested if they have symptoms.

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