CDC: Fully Vaccinated People Can Largely Ditch Masks Indoors

COVID-19 illustration by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is easing indoor mask-wearing guidance for fully vaccinated people, allowing them to safely stop wearing masks outdoors in crowds and inside in most places.

The new guidance is a major step toward returning to pre-pandemic life.

It still calls for wearing masks in crowded indoor settings like buses, planes, hospitals, prisons and homeless shelters but will help ease restrictions for reopening workplaces and schools.

Dr. Rochelle Walensky, the director of the CDC, says, “We have all longed for this moment — when we can get back to some sense of normalcy.”