It’s still too soon to make travel plans

CENTERS FOR DISEASE CONTROL

The Centers for Disease Control (CDC) has not yet issued new guidance on travel for vaccinated Americans due to concerns about travel-related surges. CDC still recommends that people do not travel to protect themselves and others from COVID-19.

While the CDC issued a number of recommendations that allow vaccinated and low-risk people more freedom to gather, advice on travel remains the same for both vaccinated and unvaccinated Americans: Don’t do it.

Because 90 percent of people remain unvaccinated, the CDC is waiting until there is more protection across the population before recommending travel guidelines.

The CDC has not yet said whether travel is safe for the 10 percent of Americans who are vaccinated, according to news reports.

The issue of air travel for the vaccinated has become contentious as the airline industry maintains that being on board a plane poses a low risk of coronavirus infection because of heavily filtered air and federally mandated mask wearing.

The new guidelines issued last week by the CDC say people fully vaccinated against COVID-19 can safely visit with other vaccinated people and small groups of unvaccinated people in some circumstances, but there are still important safety precautions needed.

The fully vaccinated can visit other vaccinated people indoors without masks or physical distancing. They can also visit indoors with unvaccinated people from a single household without masks or physical distancing if the unvaccinated people are at low risk for severe disease. They can also forgo quarantine and testing if exposed to someone who has COVID-19 but are asymptomatic. Those exposed should be on the watch for symptoms for 14 days.

The guidance notes that people who are fully vaccinated still need to take precautions in many scenarios, including masks and keep physical distance around the unvaccinated who are at increased risk for severe COVID-19.

The CDC defines people who are fully vaccinated as those who are two weeks past their second dose of the Moderna or Pfizer/BioNTech COVID-19 vaccines or two weeks past a single dose of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine.

As more people are vaccinated, additional restrictions will be eased, according to the CDC.

More than 541,000 Americans have died from COVID-19 as of last week, according to regularly updated statistics from the New York Times.