In response to this week's newly released guidelines for fully vaccinated people, Crystal A. Steed, DO, Family Medicine at ARC Dripping Springs, spoke to The List about the ramifications. "The CDC says that it is now okay for fully-vaccinated individuals to interact with family and friends who are either also fully-vaccinated, or who are at low risk for a severe reaction to COVID," she explained.
"This is a big shift from prior guidance — giving the greenlight to socially interact as we used to, albeit in small groups of vaccinated and low risk people," Dr. Steed adds. "Vaccinated grandparents can now visit and hug their low-risk grandchildren!" And of course, this is what so many older people have been waiting for.
Dr. Steed shared more good news from the CDC, noting, "Persons who are fully-vaccinated and happen to be exposed to someone positive for coronavirus do not need to quarantine." Masking and socially distancing is, however, still advised.
The CDC Guidelines for fully vaccinated individuals
- Visit with other fully vaccinated people indoors without wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart.
- Visit with unvaccinated people from one other household indoors without wearing masks or staying 6 feet apart if everyone in the other household is at low risk for severe disease.
- Refrain from quarantine and testing if they do not have symptoms of COVID-19 after contact with someone who has COVID-19.
Dr. Steed concludes her interview with a message of hope, saying, "To achieve normalcy in our community, we will need to work hard to get as many people as we can vaccinated and continue to mask and socially distance in public. If we can do this, we will reduce the spread of the virus and decrease the risk of resistant variants of COVID while we get the rest of the population vaccinated."
She concluded, "We still have a way to go before that happens, but progress is being made every day and I'm optimistic we will get there."
To book and appointment with Dr. Steed, go online to ARCBookNow.com or call 512-829-9118.