AUSTIN (KXAN) — The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said it's OK for fully-vaccinated people to gather indoors, without masks, with other vaccinated people.
"We believe these new recommendations are an important first step in our efforts to resume everyday activities in our communities." said CDC Director Rochelle Walensky.
Officials also said vaccinated people can gather with low-risk unvaccinated people from a single household. That means vaccinated grandparents can visit their healthy children and grandchildren.
An expert at St. David's Medical Center gave his view on the new guidelines Monday.
"I think the CDC is maybe dangling a little bit of a carrot here and saying this is a positive consequence of being vaccinated," said Medical Director of Infectious Diseases at St. David's Brian Metzger, M.D. "Not just for yourself, but that you can become more socialized with others."
Metzger said to keep in mind that these new guidelines are really meant for small groups.
"The real distinction in these guidelines is they want to keep the get togethers small; they still want to keep them a small size. They say put your mask on and avoid crowds, because that is where the super-spreader events happen," he explained.
Only as more people get vaccinated can that group size grow larger.
"The groups of people that you can get together with that are still unvaccinated will continue to grow over time, and you will be able to get in larger crowds. But it is still a few months away at least," Metzger said.
Officials said a person is considered fully-vaccinated two weeks after receiving the last required dose of vaccine.
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