Joe Biden says ‘great day’; as CDC lifts mask rule for fully vaccinated people

Washington: As the biggest sign for the United States is fast recovering to pre-pandemic life, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) has said fully vaccinated people are no longer required to wear masks.

The CDC announced that the order holds true for both indoors and outdoors.

After the declaration on Thursday, President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris came before reporters at the Rose Garden of the White House without wearing masks.

“I think it’s a great milestone. A great day. It’s been made possible by the extraordinary success we’ve had in vaccinating so many Americans so quickly,” Biden said.

Pointing to the latest CDC guidelines, Biden said fully vaccinated people are at very, very low risk of incurring COVID-19.

“Therefore, if you’ve been fully vaccinated, you no longer need to wear a mask. But if you’ve not been vaccinated, or if you’ve been getting a two-shot vaccine and you’ve only had your first shot but not your second, or you haven’t waited the full two weeks after your second shot, you still need to wear a mask,’ the President said.

250 million vaccine shots have been given in 114 days, he added.

“We are seeing the results. Cases are down in 49 of 50 states. New York Times has reported that hospitalisations are the lowest they’ve been since April of 2020, over a year ago, right after the start of the pandemic. Deaths are down 80 per cent and also at their lowest level since April of 2020,” Biden said.

Biden says that the virus tragically increases in other countries.

“In less than four months, we’ve gone from 5.5 per cent to nearly 60 per cent of the adults in America with at least one shot in their arm. We’ve gone from stagnation to an economy that is growing faster than it has in nearly 40 years. We’ve gone from an anemic job creation, to a record for job creation for a new administration,” Biden added.

Even if the latest guidelines by the CDC said fully vaccinated people can continue activities without wearing a mask or physically distancing, but there are some exceptions, that is, if required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules, and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance they have to wear a mask.

People travelling within the United States need not get tested before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel. As per the CDC, the vaccines are active at stopping the COVID-19 disease, particularly severe illness and death. The vaccines decrease the risk of people spreading COVID-19, it said.

Currently, the guidelines are applicable to COVID-19 vaccines approved for emergency use by the US Food and Drug Administration – Pfizer-BioNTech, Moderna, and Johnson and Johnson (J&J)/Janssen COVID-19 vaccines.

It is also applicable to COVID-19 vaccines that have been approved for emergency use by the World Health Organization. This includes AstraZeneca/Oxford, the CDC said. PTI LKJ IJT IJT