What Fully Vaccinated Means
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recently issued interim public health recommendations for fully vaccinated people in non-healthcare settings.
As noted in their recommendations, fully vaccinated people can:
- Visit with small groups of other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing in private settings
- Visit with unvaccinated people from a single household who are at low risk for severe COVID-19 disease indoors without wearing masks or physical distancing in private settings
- Refrain from quarantine and testing following a known exposure if asymptomatic
Precautions are still needed
While we are anxious to return to “normal” as soon as possible, it’s not time to let down our guard. For now, fully vaccinated people should continue to:
- Take precautions in all public spaces like wearing a well-fitted mask and physical distancing
- Wear masks, practice physical distancing, and adhere to other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease or who have an unvaccinated household member who is at increased risk for severe COVID-19 disease
- Wear masks, maintain physical distance, and practice other prevention measures when visiting with unvaccinated people from multiple households
- Avoid medium- and large-sized in-person gatherings
- Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms
- Follow guidance issued by individual employers
- Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations
Have you been fully vaccinated?
According to the CDC, people are considered fully vaccinated:
- 2 weeks after their second dose in a two-dose series, like the Pfizer or Moderna vaccines, or
- 2 weeks after a single-dose vaccine, like Johnson & Johnson’s Janssen vaccine
If it has been less than two weeks since your shot, or if you still need to get your second dose, you are not fully protected. Keep taking all prevention steps until you are fully vaccinated. Remember that even being fully vaccinated is not 100 percent protection against COVID-19 infection, but it does afford you a high level of protection against becoming severely ill, should you get COVID-19. It will still be a little while until vaccines are widely available and many have not yet had their turn at being eligible, including children. Please continue to respect those around us who remain unvaccinated by following all recommended precautions.
For additional details regarding the CDC recommendations, please go to https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/vaccines/fully-vaccinated-guidance.html.
Thank you for your ongoing efforts to maintain a safe environment for Boca Grande.
More Recent Healthcare News
What you need to know about strokes
May 26, 2023Strokes happen when the blood supply to part of the brain is interrupted or reduced, which prevents brain tissue from getting oxygen and nutrients, which leads to brain damage or death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), stroke is the fifth leading cause of death in the U.S. and is a […]
Paying tribute to our great nurses
May 10, 2023When it comes to trust, nurses continue to top Gallup’s annual Honesty and Ethics of Professions poll, according to the latest results published earlier this year. Nurses have held the top spot every year since 1999, except in 2001, when firefighters commanded that honor in the wake of the 9/11. (In case you’re wondering, medical […]
In what researchers are calling “an enormous leap forward in the understanding of Parkinson’s disease,” a new tool has been discovered that can detect pathology in spinal fluid of people who have not yet been diagnosed or exhibited clinical symptoms of the disease but are at a high risk of developing it. The new research, […]
Bob Fletcher’s secrets to longevity
April 5, 2023Next in the Boca Grande Health Clinic’s web video series, “Secrets to Longevity,” is Robert (Bob) Fletcher, one of the Island’s nonagenarians (those in their 90s). Watch Bob’s secrets to longevity, Episode 5. After the passing of his parents, Robert (Bob) Fletcher, 91, took over the family’s small piano and organ business in the 1970s […]